Clausewitz

Defence, security and diplomacy

  • Reading the Abbottabad papers

    Rebranding al-Qaeda

    May 4th 2012, 7:42 by M.J.S.

    THE documents seized from Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound a year ago that were released on May 3rd are both fascinating and unsurprising. The picture they paint is consistent with briefings from intelligence sources that were recently reported in The Economist of a deeply frustrated man who had seen most of his close colleagues killed, was baffled by how to respond to the Arab spring, had little control over al-Qaeda (AQ) “franchises” in Yemen and the Maghreb and whose plotting against Western targets had become almost entirely detached from the reality of the hollowed-out terrorist network’s ability to deliver. 

    A note of caution is in order, however.

  • Pakistan's security state

    Reading the Taliban

    Feb 1st 2012, 16:21 by M.S.

    THE secret NATO report on the Taliban leaked to the BBC is full of fascinating stuff, but it mostly confirms what was already known rather than shedding new light on the conflict in Afghanistan. The report, called “The State of the Taliban” and based on interrogations with more than 4,000 Taliban and al-Qaeda detainees is, however, rich in anecdotal evidence about the way that Pakistan’s intelligence service, the ISI, controls and sustains the Taliban and other extremist groups in Afghanistan.

    The semi-comforting belief that only “rogue elements” in the ISI have close connections to the Taliban never had much basis in fact and it has less now.

  • America and Pakistan

    Sorry story

    Dec 22nd 2011, 15:43 by M.J.S.

    WHEN the news came through on November 26th that up to 24 Pakistani soldiers had been killed in a cross-border incident involving American and Afghan forces, your correspondent was at ISAF HQ in Kabul preparing to interview General John Allen, the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan. The mood at ISAF was one of deep shock combined with a sense of foreboding. The timing was awful. General Allen had only just returned from a visit to General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, chief of Pakistan’s army general staff, in a bid to improve relations that were already under the severest strain.

  • America's defence budget

    Terrible swift sword

    Nov 25th 2011, 16:48 by The Economist online

    IN THIS week's print edition our Lexington columnist considers the prospect of big cuts in America's defence budget, which are due to be triggered as a result of the failure of the supercommittee. Will a legislative accident really cause America to lose its position as the world’s leading military power?

    IN THE summer of 2010 Admiral Mike Mullen, then still chairman of America’s joint chiefs of staff, said that the biggest security threat facing the nation was the national debt. The proposition that military strength depends in the long run on economic health is hardly controversial.

  • Britain's Ministry of Defence

    Fox's legacy

    Oct 15th 2011, 11:54 by M.J.S.

    IN THE end, he had to go. Liam Fox is a bouncy, cocky, “nod’s as good as a wink” charmer, much loved by the right of his party for his ideological certainty and equally distrusted by the more liberal Cameroons for his poorly disguised contempt for their centrist pragmatism. But not even the ebullient Dr Fox could face down the daily flow of revelation about his reckless relationship with Adam Werritty and the manifest conflicts of interest it caused him. From the point of view of Britain’s dysfunctional Ministry of Defence (MoD) and its financially strained armed forces it is, however, rather a pity that Dr Fox’s indiscretions gave him no option other than to fall on his sword.

  • Cybersecurity

    Arms control in the fifth domain

    Oct 6th 2011, 15:00 by Charlemagne

    THE British foreign secretary’s Twitter-borne Q&A on cyberspace was, predictably, less than enlightening. In one tweet William Hague declares:

    “I agree w/ @graphiclunarkid internet should be open & safe for all, with right balance between intellectual property & accessibility”

    But how, precisely, should one balance openness and security on the internet? How to preserve the inventiveness and productivity of the digital age, while averting the threats of crime, espionage and warfare in cyberspace?

  • The killing of Anwar al-Awlaki

    A crippling blow

    Oct 1st 2011, 9:17 by M.J.S.

    THE successful drone strike that on September 30th killed Anwar al-Awlaki and at least four other senior operatives from al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based franchise (known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninisula, or AQAP) may turn out to be even more significant than the raid on Abbottabad that ended the life of Osama bin Laden. Although bin Laden’s death was a cathartic moment for most Americans, and the special forces that swept through his squalid lair carried off an intelligence treasure trove, al-Qaeda’s embattled leader had been a busted flush, from an operational point of view, for some time.

  • Anders Fogh Rasmussen on NATO

    Anders Fogh Rasmussen on NATO

    Sep 23rd 2011, 20:09 by The Economist online

    The secretary general of NATO on successes in Libya, the role of America and pooling resources to buy expensive kit

  • America and Pakistan

    Relationship problems

    Sep 23rd 2011, 9:30 by M.J.S.

    HAS Admiral Mike Mullen, who retires next month after two terms as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, become a tad “demob happy”—or is America engaged in a serious, some would say overdue, attempt to redefine its relationship with Pakistan? Nobody has put more effort than Admiral Mullen (pictured above left) into nurturing the fractious but vital military-to-military relationship between the two countries. When I saw him in Washington, DC late last year, America’s most senior military officer told me that he had travelled to Pakistan more than 20 times since 2008 for meetings with General Assfaq Kayani (pictured above right), Pakistan’s top soldier.

  • The war in Afghanistan

    How to read the downing of the Chinook

    Aug 8th 2011, 16:36 by M.J.S.

    THE downing of a Chinook helicopter, apparently by a Taliban rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) or grenades, in the early hours of Saturday morning with the loss of 30 Americans (including 22 members of the same elite Navy Seal team that had killed Osama bin Laden) and eight Afghans, was a reminder of the risks special forces run in Afghanistan on an almost nightly basis. It was also unquestionably a major propaganda coup for the Taliban who took the opportunity to claim that the destruction of the helicopter in the Tangi Valley, not far from Kabul, was revenge for the death of the al Qaeda leader.

  • America's risky withdrawal from Afghanistan

    An aggressive retreat

    Jun 25th 2011, 14:12 by M.J.S.

    AS ADMIRAL MIKE MULLEN, America’s most senior military officer, confirmed to the House armed services committee on June 23rd, Barack Obama’s plan to cut troop levels in Afghanistan by 10,000 this year and by a further 20,000 or so by September 2011 is a more “aggressive” drawdown than he advised.

  • Osama bin Laden

    The evolution of al-Qaeda

    May 2nd 2011, 15:29 by M.J.S.

    THE first question that many in the West will have asked on hearing the news of Osama bin Laden’s killing is: does this make us any safer? The cautious reply of security experts is that in the short term the danger of terrorist attacks may go up as al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups look for ways to avenge the death of their symbolic leader, but that in the long-term Mr bin Laden’s demise may erode the al-Qaeda brand and thus its ability to influence the global jihadist movement. Even that may be too optimistic. Osama bin Laden dead is a great deal better than Osama bin Laden alive, but the truth is that his death may mean rather more to his enemies than to his followers.

  • Obama's national-security team

    Changes at the top

    Apr 27th 2011, 17:29 by M.J.S.

    THE changes to America’s national-security team that are expected to be announced tomorrow (April 28th) appear to have been designed with one aim in mind: to give Barack Obama greater control over a military machine that he regards as wasteful, arrogant and at times close to insubordinate. But Mr Obama has much to thank Robert Gates for. The outgoing defence secretary brought a cool-headed competence to the job that was desperately needed after Donald Rumsfeld came close to reducing America’s military to a state of nervous collapse.

  • Libya

    The rebels advance

    Mar 27th 2011, 10:36 by M.J.S.

    AT AROUND 10.00pm on March 25th, six days after their headlong retreat from Benghazi following the first coalition strikes, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi’s men were pulling out of the strategically important crossroads town of Ajdabiya. Attacks the previous night by British Tornados using "fire-and-forget" Brimstone anti-tank missiles destroyed much of the government armour and artillery that had been shelling the town for the best part of the week and with them the will of loyalist troops to continue fighting.

  • The Libya campaign

    Into the unknown

    Mar 24th 2011, 9:32 by M.J.S.

    This is an updated version of the post that was made live at 16.55 on March 23rd.

    EVEN as French warplanes set off on March 19th, under a United Nations mandate, to stop Muammar Qaddafi’s tanks and artillery reaching the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi, it was clear that the hastily assembled “coalition of the willing” would have to make it up as it went along. The pace of events on the ground had left little time for reflection. 

    Security Council Resolution 1973, passed less than 48 hours earlier with Russia, China, Brazil, India and Germany abstaining, was a triumph for French and British diplomacy.

About Clausewitz

In this blog, our correspondents provide reporting and analysis on the subjects of defence, security and diplomacy, covering weapons and warfare, spooks and cyber-attacks, diplomats and dead-drops. The blog is named after Carl von Clausewitz, the Prussian soldier and military theorist whose classic work, "On War", is still widely studied today.

Advertisement

Trending topics

Read comments on the site's most popular topics

Advertisement

Products & events