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USA kommer att skicka en flygdivision med 18 stridsflygplan till Luleå, för att delta i den internationella flygövningen ACE21, rapporterar Norr media.

Från början skulle årets upplaga av övningen omfatta uppemot 140 militära flygplan, men på grund av pandemin har övningens omfattning minskats.  Det är femte gången som den internationella flygövningen genomförs över Nordkalotten. Läs artikel

In Norwegen kreuzen sich drei groβe Kraftlinien: die deutsche, die sowjetrussische und die englische», rapporterte den tyske sendemannen i Oslo til Berlin i desember 1938. Nordmennene hadde staket ut en pro-britisk kurs, kommenterte han, i håp om å nøytralisere tysk og sovjetisk kraft. På dette tidspunktet hadde Oslo-statene – Benelux og de nordiske landene – allerede erklært seg løst fra Folkeforbundets militære sanksjonsbestemmelse. Hensikten med «flukten fra Genève», som Nils Ørvik kalte prosessen, var å utvide småstatenes politiske handlingsrom i krigen mange fryktet var under oppseiling.

I det konfliktfylte internasjonale klimaet og den rivende militærfaglige utviklingen på 1930-tallet grodde det fram en ny norsk tradisjon for sikkerhetspolitisk og strategisk tenkning. Den ble drevet fram av det behovet for nyorientering mange mente var påkrevet når landet hadde kommet i klem mellom stridende stormakter. Det militærintellektuelle miljøet i Norge var både sterkt og splittet fordi den internasjonale og militære utviklingen innbød til nytenkning, samtidig som mange tviholdt på gamle ordninger. Uansett, dvaletiden for den operative virksomheten ga offiserene tid til å engasjere seg i studier og teoretiske debatter. Läs artikel

Al-Sistani är shiamuslimernas andliga ledare i Irak, men också en av världens viktigaste shiitiska ledare. Efter den USA-ledda invasionen av Irak och efter att Saddam Hussein störtats 2003 har al-Sistani också haft stort politiskt inflytande de gånger han blandat sig i politiken.

Då det blodiga kaoset tagit överhanden har han vid några tillfällen försökt skapa reda i det, med varierande framgång. Han åtnjuter stor respekt bland irakierna. […]

Vatikanen gav ut ett pressmeddelande efter mötet i Najaf.

”Den Heliga Fadern mötte Storayatolla Sayyid Ali Al-Husayni Al-Sistani i morse i Najaf. Under besöket, som varade cirka 45 minuter, betonade den Helige Fadern vikten av samarbete och vänskap mellan religiösa samfund så att vi genom att odla ömsesidig respekt och dialog kan bidra till Iraks, regionens, och hela mänsklighetens bästa”

Enligt Vatikanen tackade påven storayatollan för att han ”har höjt sin röst till försvar av de svagaste och mest förföljda och bekräftat människolivets helighet och vikten av det irakiska folkets enhet”. Läs artikel

On 16 February, during a two-day summit of leaders from west Africa in N’Djamena, Chad, French President Emmanuel Macron appeared via video link from inside the gilded Elysée palace to give France’s view on the region’s rampant insurgency.

After addressing heads of state from Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Mauritania, Macron, who recently increased the number of French troops in the Sahel to more than 5,000, told journalists the leaders had agreed that they could not negotiate with the commanders of two of the region’s most notorious armed groups. They ”are enemies,” he said, referring to Iyad Ag Ghali, the Tuareg leader of Ansar-ud Deen, and Amadou Koufa, the head of Katiba Macina, both Malians. ”In no way whatsoever are they discussion partners.”

He was reiterating a long-standing French position: ”no negotiation with terrorists”.

Three days later, however, Moctar Ouane, Mali’s interim prime minister, revealed that his government had created a body to lead talks with the militant groups, which have devastated areas in north and central Mali and elsewhere across the Sahel.

”More and more voices in Mali are calling for dialogue with our brothers who have joined radical groups,” he said. Läs artikel

[…] In 2013, when President François Hollande launched the largest French foreign military operation in Mali since the Algerian war, the goal was to rout the jihadists in the north of the country.

It was supposed to take a few weeks. Eight years later, with the escalation of the conflict, there is no end in sight. The fighting spread across Mali and into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, a battlefield four times the size of France itself. Last year was the bloodiest yet, killing some 6,200 people. […]

“At present, it does not seem that local forces can stand on their own feet,” says Elie Tenenbaum, researcher at the French Institute of International Relations. “They suffer from endemic corruption, incompetence in the upper echelons and material deficiencies – they still badly need French and foreign aid.”

But Macron said he did not intend to wage an “infinite war” in the Sahel and called on EU countries to offer more support for the operation, both to help him to lead the campaign and to give it international coverage. […]

The growing resentment in these countries towards the former colonial power risks driving more people into the arms of the jihadists. The conundrum is that they have to stay long enough to provide some stability, but the more they do, the greater the fuss for them to leave.

With the presidential election slated for a year from now, Macron’s party will become increasingly wary of how this protracted war would play out in an election campaign. Although support for the operation was high at first, it steadily declined as the French forces became more bogged down. A recent poll shows that a small majority of the public is now opposed to the operation. Läs artikel

Support for military conscription in Estonia stands at 90 percent, the Ministry of Defense says.

Estonia has conscription in place via two tiers of eight- or 11-month stints, depending on the , though exemptions can be obtained, including for those in higher education, whose conscription is deferred indefinitely. […]

Defense minister Kalle Laanet (Reform) says the defensive will of Estonia’s residents – 77 percent of residents believe that Estonia must provide armed resistance in the event of an attack – is similarly high.

”More than half of the Estonian population is prepared to personally defend the country in the event of an attack,” Laanet said, via a press release. […]

NATO membership continues to be largely supported, while the presence of NATO personnel in Estonia is also largely appreciated, the survey found. Kalle Laanet said: ”NATO’s role in ensuring Estonia’s security continues to be considered important – 52 percent believe that if a conflict breaks out, NATO will provide direct military assistance, while forty-five per cent believe that NATO membership will prevent military conflict.” Läs artikel

With the Biden administration’s stated intention of restarting the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a welcome opportunity to reengage with diplomacy in a troubled part of the world could well be on the horizon. Even if that intention is imperiled by recent actions in Syria, it is imperative that no more such provocations occur for the long-term interests of U.S.-Iranian relations. From being able to exit various proxy wars to normalizing trade in the Persian Gulf, the necessity of using diplomacy first to engage with Iran is becoming more apparent to many in Washington, DC. What should also be considered, in addition to the immediate benefits of reconstituting the nuclear deal, are the long-term geopolitical opportunities that would open up throughout Eurasia if and when U.S.-Iranian relations are ever properly normalized. Läs artikel

The British Royal Navy recently posted photos of its HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier strike group on social media, demonstrating the core maritime force it is determined to form. According to an official agreement previously signed by the British and American defense officials, a combined strike group, led by the aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth, will be deployed to the Asia-Pacific in the spring of 2021.

London’s decision to merge forces with Washington to form a new carrier strike group has captured extensive attention. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the parliament, “Next year HMS Queen Elizabeth will lead a British and allied task group on our most ambitious deployment for two decades, encompassing the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and East Asia, where we will carry out joint military exercises and patrols with our allied naval ships.”

There are two reasons why the UK is eager to deploy its newly formed combat force to the Asia Pacific. For one thing, it is intensifying its “presence” by enhancing and showcasing its military strengths and participating in global hotspot issues. Worried about its increasing isolation from the international community since Brexit, the country is anxious to restore its international standing in a proactive or even aggressive posture. In 2019, the then Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said Britain might build new military bases in the South China Sea and the Caribbean Sea, which would get his country back to the international stage as a ’true global player’. Läs artikel

China increased its 2021 defense budget by 6.8 percent to 1.35 trillion yuan ($209 billion) in a quicker pace than last year’s growth, which analysts believe is normal, steady and restrained as the country resiliently emerges from the wreckage of COVID-19 pandemic.

The budget increase, released in a draft budget report issued at the opening of the annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s top legislature, on Friday, is slightly higher than the 6.6 percent hike in 2020 when the country and the rest of the world were still struggling to fight the unprecedent COVID-19 pandemic that upended the globe. […]

China has kept its defense spending at around 1.3 percent of its GDP in recent years, which is far below the average global level of 2.6 percent, data shows.
The US, by far the world’s top military spender, has spent about four times China’s figure in recent years. A US defense budget proposal in February 2020 for fiscal year 2021 requested $740.5 billion for national security, $705.4 billion of which is for the US Department of Defense. Läs artikel

A German frigate would set sail for the Indo-Pacific region early August this year and sail through the South China Sea on its way back about six months later, reported the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), a German newspaper, on March 2 citing several senior officials at the German foreign and defense ministries. Reuters said it that would be the first German warship crossing the South China Sea since 2002.

The German newspaper analyzed that the voyage was intended to enhance Germany’s regional influence in the Indo-Pacific, which falls in line with the goals that Berlin set in its Indo-Pacific policy guidelines last September. The newspaper added that the maritime operation clearly demonstrated Berlin’s opposition to China’s sovereign claims in disputed waters of the South China Sea.[…]

Cui Hongjian, director of the Department for European Studies of China Institute of International Studies, said in an interview on March 3 that European countries, such as the UK and France, assigned warships to the South China Sea a few years ago. Putting up the banner of “freedom of navigation” though, these countries still wanted to keep a distance from the US, which is shown in their choice of route, timing, and the official statements. Läs artikel

Sverre Diesen har i sitt innlegg i DN 4. mars har ikke mye respekt for min omgang med historien. Jeg hevder at etter Sovjetunionens fall kollapset politikernes betalingsvillighet for å finansiere forsvar (innlegg i DN 2. mars). Dette resulterte i at forsvarsbudsjettet, korrigert for alminnelig inflasjon, ikke økte fra midten av 1990-tallet til midten av 2010-tallet. […]

Men politikernes manglende betalingsvilje frikjenner ikke satsingen på internasjonale operasjoner for å ha bidratt ytterligere til nedbyggingen av forsvaret. Selv om man bare brukte rundt tre-fire prosent av forsvarsbudsjettet direkte på internasjonale operasjoner i snitt i perioden 2000–2010, så er ikke det de eneste kostnadene forbundet med internasjonale operasjoner. Utvikling og vedlikehold av spesialisert kapasitet for deltagelse i slike er også kostbart.Akkurat hvor kostbart vet jeg ikke, men Diesens sjef Kristin Krohn Devold uttrykte seg krystallklart om hva hun ønsket å gjøre med forsvaret:

«Det finnes ingen store militære trusler mot demokratiene i Nato og om slike trusler skulle dukke opp på nytt vil vi få forvarsel lang tid i forveien»

«Tradisjonelt forsvar basert på forsvar av territorier gir ingen mening hverken militært eller politisk»

«Fredstidsforsvaret skal nedskaleres og tilpasses ny forsvarsstruktur».

«Kompetansen skal skreddersys for å passe inn i multinasjonale styrkeformasjoner». (Min oversettelse).

Alt dette fikk hun og andre gjennomført. Resultatet er at vi er en forsvarspolitisk klientstat med begrenset evne til selvstendige disposisjoner. Diesen har helt rett i at man ikke kunne opprettholde seks brigader på et teknologisk akseptabelt nivå. Men man kunne kanskje hatt to. Eller i det minste litt luftvern rundt norske byer. Läs artikel

Vi vet at blant velgerne er massiv støtte til at Norge skal slutte seg til atomvåpenforbudet som trådte i kraft 22. januar i år. Problemet er at dette ikke gir seg utslag i regjeringen og på Stortinget.

På landsmøtene i vår skal de ulike partiene behandle sine programmer for neste stortingsperiode. Diskusjonene foregår i de enkelte partiene og på fylkesparti-årsmøter.

Venstre, Kristelig Folkeparti, SV, MDG, Rødt har klare formuleringer om støtte til FNs atomvåpenforbud i sine programforslag. Fremskrittspartiet og Høyre er like klare på at de ikke ønsker noe atomvåpenforbud.

I Senterpartiet og AP har programkomiteene lagt fram sitt andreutkast til program. Det er åpenbart at høringen i partiorganisasjonen ga programkomiteene en klar melding om at formuleringene omkring atomvåpen ikke var bra nok. Läs artikel