ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Britain used to boast the most powerful navy in the world. No more. That’s a serious problem for allies like the United States. Traditionally, Britain’s Royal Navy has been the U.S. Navy's closest partner. The two have fought together against most every foe. So any weakening of the Royal Navy also erodes Washington's naval power. Today, however, the Royal Navy is a shadow of its former self. Government budgeteers have repeatedly, and excessively, cut the numbers of its ships, planes and manpower. It can barely patrol the United Kingdom’s own waters, much less project British influence abroad. Though London officials now vow to reverse the decline, it might be too late. With morale plummeting, and its few remaining ships frequently malfunctioning at sea, the Royal Navy’s suffering might be terminal. The timing couldn’t be worse. The West is mobilizing to defeat Islamic State, deter an increasingly aggressive Russia and manage China's meteoric rise as a world power. The Briti...

ISLAMABAD: India is set to deliver more arms to Afghanistan to help it fight Islamist militants, Kabul's envoy to New Delhi said, even if Pakistan is wary of closer military cooperation between countries lying to its east and west. India has provided a little over $2 billion in economic assistance to Afghanistan in the last 15 years, but has been more measured in providing weapons in order to avoid a backlash from Pakistan, which sees Afghanistan as its area of influence. Last December, after years of dragging its feet, New Delhi announced the supply of four attack helicopters in India's first transfer of lethal equipment to the government in Kabul since the hardline Islamist Taliban movement was toppled. Kabul immediately deployed three of the Russian Mi-25 attack helicopters to go after insurgents, and the fourth will be inducted in the next few weeks. Shaida Mohammad Abdali, the Afghan ambassador to India, said regional security was deteriorating and Afghan national forces w...

By Stephen Lendman A lot rides on defeating US imperialism in Syria. The fate of the region and beyond hangs in the balance. If Syria goes, Iran is next, a war if initiated by Washington far more potentially consequential and devastating. Iran’s population alone makes it an important regional country – four times the size of Syria at around 80 million. Imagine the possible war-related death, injury and displacement toll. Transforming the Islamic Republic into a US vassal state would give America and Israel unchallenged Middle East dominance. Russian and Chinese regional influence would wane or be eliminated. The loss of Syrian and Iranian sovereignty would greatly aid the scourge of US imperialism worldwide – Moscow and Beijing the key independent powers standing in the way of its global dominance. Nuclear war would be more likely with the aim of letting America colonize planet earth unopposed if triumphant, provided nuclear devastation and radiation poisoning didn’t kill us all – why ...