ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

About 150 US Marines are poised to enter turbulent South Sudan to help evacuate Americans and provide security for the US Embassy, if ordered to do so, two US military officials said Monday. The troops are moving from Moron, Spain, to the Navy’s Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti. An estimated 100 US citizens are believed to be in South Sudan, where steady violence is stoking fears of an all-out civil war in the world’s newest country. “By positioning these forces forward, we are able to more quickly respond to crisis in the region, if required,” read a statement from US Africa Command. It cited the example of Benghazi, where an attack last year killed US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. “One of the lessons learned from the tragic events in Benghazi was that we needed to be better postured, in order to respond to developing or crisis situations, if needed. These precautionary movements will allow us to do just that,” the statement read. According to a senior administra

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging the U.N. Security Council to add 5,500 troops and police to the 7,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in conflict-wracked South Sudan. Ban proposed in a letter to the council obtained Monday by The Associated Press that the troops be transferred from U.N. missions in Congo, Darfur, Abyei, Ivory Coast and Liberia along with three attack helicopters, three utility helicopters and a C-130 military transport plane. France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud, the current council president, said he expects the council to vote Tuesday on a resolution authorizing the transfers. The secretary-general urged member states to urgently provide transport to get the troops, police and equipment to South Sudan. Ban said the U.N. mission's capacity to investigate human rights abuses is also being urgently strengthened.

Video Documentary "This Is What Winning Looks Like" is a disturbing new documentary about the ineptitude, drug abuse, sexual misconduct, and corruption of the Afghan security forces as well as the reduced role of US Marines due to the troop withdrawal. THIS IS WHAT WINNING LOOKS LIKE MY AFGHANISTAN WAR DIARY By Ben Anderson US Specialist Christopher Saenz looks out over the landscape during a patrol outside the village of Musa Qala, Helmand province. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) Ididn’t plan on spending six years covering the war in Afghanistan. I went there in 2007 to make a film about the vicious fighting between undermanned, underequipped British forces and the Taliban in Helmand, Afghanistan’s most violent province. But I became obsessed with what I witnessed there—how different it was from the conflict’s portrayal in the media and in official government statements. All I had to do was trek out to one of the many tiny, isolated patrol bases that dot the barren, sunbaked landsca

The first western journalist into South Sudan reports from Juba on the brutal and sudden descent into civil war By Daniel Howden in Juba A young cattle herder from the Dinka tribe carries his AK 47 rifle near Rumbek, capital of the Lakes State in central South Sudan. Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters December 23, 2013 - " The Guardian " - A week ago, Simon K, a 20-year-old student living in the capital of South Sudan , was arrested by men in military uniforms. He was asked a question that has taken on deadly importance in the world's newest country in the past seven days: incholdi – "What is your name?" in Dinka, the language of the country's president and its largest ethnic group. Those who, like Simon, were unable to answer, risked being identified as Nuer, the ethnic group of the former vice-president now leading the armed opposition and facing the brunt of what insiders are describing as the world's newest civil war. Simon K was taken to a police

Sorry, but the real number of Arab Israelis isn't an existential threat to the Jewish state. BY Uri Sadot December 19, 2013 - " FP " - If you listen to some top American and Israeli officials, Israel's "demographic time bomb" is ticking -- and it's set to explode any day now. Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Dec. 7 that Israel's demographic dynamics represented an "existential threat ... that makes it impossible for Israel to preserve its future as a democratic, Jewish state." Some officials in Jerusalem agree with him: Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog and senior Cabinet member Yair Lapid last week echoed similar concerns that demographic trends would turn Israel into a "bi-national state." On all three occasions, demography was cited as an urgent reason to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The argument, in a nutshell, goes like this: The birth rate among Arab families in Israel and Palestine is higher than

Taiwan's first six Boeing AH-64E Apache attack helicopters arrived in Kaohsiung Port on 4 November. Source: Republic of China Army Taiwan has grounded six recently delivered AH-64E Apache attack helicopters due to the risk of main transmission failure, the country's Ministry of National Defence (MND) revealed on 18 December. Defense Minister Yen Ming said the United States had told Taiwan that the malfunction was affecting US Army AH-64Es and as a result Taipei had suspended all AH-64E operations for safety checks. Taiwan is the first foreign operator of the AH-64E, which entered US Army service in late 2011. Speaking during a meeting of the legislative Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Lieutenant General Hao Yii-jy, Chief of Staff of the Army, said the US had told the MND on 17 December. The MND said it has suspended all Apache training operations "pending a full investigation being carried out by the United States into the cause of the malfunction". T

Click to Enlarge China's declaration of a new air defense identification zone has added a new dimension to regional tensions over territorial and international space that seems likely to remain in place. The general risk of an incident, air collision or crash has significantly increased due to the disagreement over the legitimacy of China's zone, uncertainty over its enforcement, and the underlying fears over future administrative control and sovereignty. Japan fears that whatever it does, China will take further steps to build its presence in the disputed territories and whittle away the status quo of Japanese control. For that reason, Japan is also likely to continue to monitor its air defense zone energetically. The rising trend of Japanese Air Self-Defense Force jets scrambling to intercept aircraft breaching its zone looks set to continue. This trend has been mirrored by China, with the rising prominence of Japanese interceptions of Chinese aircraft overtaking those of

The Naval Update Map shows the approximate current locations of U.S. Carrier Strike Groups and Amphibious Ready Groups, based on available open-source information. No classified or operationally sensitive information is included in this weekly update. CSGs and ARGs are the keys to U.S. dominance of the world's oceans. A CSG is centered on an aircraft carrier, which projects U.S. naval and air power and supports a Carrier Air Wing, or CVW. The CSG includes significant offensive strike capability. An ARG is centered on three amphibious warfare ships, with a Marine Expeditionary Unit embarked. An MEU is built around a heavily reinforced and mobile battalion of Marines. Carrier Strike Groups The USS Harry S. Truman CSG with CVW 3 embarked is underway in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility supporting maritime security operations and conducting theater security cooperation efforts. The USS George H.W. Bush is underway in the Atlantic Ocean for routine training. Amphibious