Up until 2014, Norway had extensive military cooperation with Russia. In 2013, the Norwegian MFA announced that the two countries had some 20 different joint efforts annually, with activities in all defense areas.

Today, however, the situation is different. Since 2014 and Russia’s actions in the Ukraine, Norway has – like NATO – suspended its bilateral military cooperation with Russia.

Agreements exempt from this suspension include coast guard and border control collaboration, both in which annual protocol meetings still take place. Cooperation about search and rescue is maintained, as is the direct line between the Norwegian Joint Headquarters and Russia’s Northern Fleet. Läs artikel

Sveriges och Finlands två Centerpartier är minst sagt olika. Medan det svenska Centerpartiet vill gå med i Nato och dess talesperson Kerstin Lundgren talar klartext om Kina och Ryssland så skickar det finländska Centerpartiet inte riktigt samma signaler: Norden är inte viktigt, Kina ska inte utmanas med offentligt prat om övergrepp mot mänskliga rättigheter och Ryssland ska komma närmare, summerar Yrsa Grüne-Luoma den finländska centerledaren Annika Saarikkos säkerhetspolitiska linjetal hos Paasikivi-samfundet.

När en erfaren politiker som Annika Saarikko, Centerpartiets ordförande och vetenskaps- och kulturminister i Sanna Marins regering, håller sitt utrikes- och säkerhetspolitiska linjetal kunde man vänta sig en starkare betoning av det nordiska. Sporadiska omnämnanden av Sverige och Norge var allt hon hade att komma med. Läs artikel

The Algerian newspaper Le Quotidien d’Oran claims that Paris has asked Algiers for help in the regional crisis in the Sahel.

This seems to have been the main reason for the trip to Algiers on April 8 by the Chief of Staff of the French army, General François Lecointre, for face-to-face talks with Algeria’s Chief of Staff, General Said Chengriha. Never before had the de facto head of the French army’s operational command travelled to Algiers. According to experts on both shores, the agenda for the meeting included the Sahel, with the powder kegs of Niger and Mali, Libya, the aftermath of the French nuclear site in Algeria, and the terrorist phenomenon in North Africa.

Paris would like to put an honourable end to its derailed Operation Barkhane, a continuation of the previous Serval and Epervier operations, which in six years of deploying joint French and Sahelian forces, with the support of the US, the UK, Germany and Spain, has made the region even worse than before its military intervention. Paris wants to withdraw to Libya and is discussing with Algiers the Sahel takeover. Operation Takuba, launched by Europe less than a year ago, is not likely to succeed. It is no coincidence that Algerian President Tebboune has pushed through an amended constitution, legalising Algerian military intervention outside its borders for the first time. Läs artikel

Russia’s defense minister said Tuesday that the country’s massive military buildup in the west was part of readiness drills amid what he described as threats from NATO.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the maneuvers in western Russia that have worried neighboring Ukraine and brought warnings from NATO would last for another two weeks. […]

In the past three weeks, the Russian military has deployed two armies and three airborne formations to western regions “as a response to the alliance’s military activities threatening Russia,” the defense minister said. […]

Amid the recent tensions, the United States notified Turkey that two U.S. warships would sail to the Black Sea on April 14 and April 15 and stay there until May 4 and May 5. The U.S. Navy ships have made regular visits to the Black Sea in past years, vexing Moscow. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov denounced the latest deployment as “openly provocative,” adding that “American ships have absolutely nothing to do near our shores.”Läs artikel

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III announced that, after consultations with German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the United States will base an additional 500 service members in Germany by the fall. […]

The increase reverses the policy of the previous administration, which looked to drastically reduce the number of U.S. forces based in Germany. President Joe Biden announced a policy to freeze that process, which included moving the headquarters for the Stuttgart-based U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command. The president ordered a global posture review to determine how to best station U.S. forces around the world. […]

”Strengthening our relationship with Germany is a top priority for the Biden-Harris administration,” Austin said. ”Underscoring our strong commitment to allies and partners is at the forefront of my agenda, this includes advancing our transatlantic partnership, and increasing cooperation with our NATO allies,” he said. Läs artikel

[…] Fast forward to 2021. Curiously enough, America’s armed forces are once again recovering from the trauma of a conflict — the “war on terror” — that, over nearly 20 years, has largely been lost. For most Pentagon officials, repeating disasters like Iraq and Afghanistan ad infinitum would be anything but a desirable course. So, once again, it’s back to the past, an all-too-comfortable return to planning for future wars against near-peer threats.

Instead of unconventional warfare against so-called asymmetrical foes (think Islamist militias with roadside bombs), we’re back to relatively symmetrical warfare using staggeringly expensive conventional weaponry, as well as skills and mindsets that have the concomitant benefit of justifying huge Pentagon budgets long into the future. Think of it as a win-win situation for all, or so the U.S. military evidently now believes. And if the expected war never comes, at least that military will be replenished with lots of new weaponry (at considerable taxpayer expense). Läs artikel

Regeringen vill införa ett nytt brott – utlandsspioneri – för att motverka att känsliga uppgifter om Sveriges internationella samarbeten sprids.

Efter kritik görs undantag, så att medier inte hindras från att rapportera om missförhållanden.

Redan 2017 kom en utredning med förslag om hur utlandsspioneri ska kunna bli straffbart. Nu presenterar regeringen ett utkast till lagrådsremiss med sikte på ny lagstiftning 2023. I dag kan man dömas för spioneri om man röjer hemliga uppgifter som gynnar främmande makt och skadar Sverige. Men regeringen anser att det finns en lucka, eftersom nuvarande lag bara siktar in sig på handlingar som utgör ett direkt hot mot landets säkerhet.

Frågan har blivit mer aktuell på senare år, när Sverige deltar i allt fler internationella freds- och säkerhetsbevarande insatser, till exempel i Afghanistan och Mali. Om hemliga uppgifter om insatserna sprids skadar det kanske inte rikets säkerhet direkt, men däremot Sveriges samarbete med andra länder och organisationer. Läs artikel

NATO is an organization that is very good at not actually doing anything —and it should stay that way. It is when NATO tries to do things that it causes endless amounts of trouble.

For when NATO likes to boast that it is “the most successful alliance in history” because it deterred a Soviet attack on Western Europe and so never had to fight a war, that is true, but it obscures another historical truth that NATO has forgotten.

This truth is that in the late 1940s and early 1950s, both the USSR and the United States decided independently that they would not seek to expand their political systems and alliances in Europe using military force or the threat of it — for the obvious reason that any such move would be likely to lead to a catastrophic nuclear war. This is something that we urgently need to remember, as NATO squares up to Russia (or pretends to) in Ukraine.

Thus, even before the introduction of the Truman Doctrine and of U.S. support for Greece and Turkey in 1947 — and three years before the creation of NATO — Josef Stalin had already decided not to support the Greek communists in the civil war there. Furthermore, he had also pressured the Yugoslav communist government not to do so, contributing to the Soviet-Yugoslav split. […]

From this point of view, the Cold War was not won between 1989 and 1991. It was won between 1956, when the Hungarian masses revolted against communism, and 1961, when the East German communist state confessed that the only way it could stop its population from running away to a better life in West Germany was by building a giant prison wall to keep them in. From that moment, Soviet communism as an ideological model in Europe was dead. Läs artikel

[…] Criticism of the counterterrorism strategy driving these wars is not new. We have long been among the critics arguing that counterterrorism strategies have worsened violent extremism (see commentaries from 2009 and 2020). What is new in 2021, at least for the Sahel, is that the consensus view in elite Western policy circles is turning toward sharp criticism of current policy. Recent publications from Chatham House in London, the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, and the International Crisis Group in Brussels reflect the shift.

All three reports agree that Western counterterrorism policy in the Sahel has failed, being both over-militarized and ineffective. All suggest, in slightly varying language, that policy must be “rebalanced” or “rethought” to emphasize diplomacy and good governance. This includes “talking with terrorists.” And while the emphasis on governance, along with military action, has long been part of the rhetoric of the international community and of powers engaged in the region, the new tone is clearly different. […]

The Chatham House report states that in the Sahel today, “Success depends first and foremost on the willingness (much more than on the capacity) of corrupt leaders to reform and renew their social contract with citizens, especially in rural areas. International efforts will fail as long as impunity prevails and local armies can kill civilians and topple governments without consequence.” Läs artikel