Wednesday, February 27, 2008

REPORT - Global War on Terrorism: An Assessment

The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment (CSBA) has released its new report – The Global War on Terrorism: An Assessment.

According to their press release, this 280 page report concludes that the US position in the Global War on Terror has slipped since 2003 but also suggests that the “tide may be turning against Jihadi Extremism.”

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Friday's Miscellany 02-22-2008

American Enterprise Institute
American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science
BASIC
Brookings
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Center for a New American Security
James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies
Center for Security Policy
Center for Security Studies
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Committee on the Present Danger
Congressional Budget Office
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Director of National Intelligence (DNI)
EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS)
Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI)
Government Accountability Office (GAO)
Heritage Foundation
Human Rights Watch
Information Sharing Environment (ISE)
International Crisis Group
ISN Security Watch
Jamestown Foundation
Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO)
Lexington Institute
National Security Archive
Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS)
Pew Global Attitudes Project
Rand
Strategic Studies Institute
Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Friday's Miscellany 02-15-2008

American Enterprise Institute (AEI)

Amnesty International Brookings Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Combating Terrorism Center

  • CTC Sentinel, v. 1, no. 3 (February 2008)
    • Counter-Terrorism Issues for the Next President By Richard Clarke and Rob Knake
    • U.S. Security Assistance to Philippines: A Success Story Against Terrorism By Peter Chalk
    • Takeovers of Moderate Muslim Institutions: Radical Islamist Tactics at the Local Level By Madeleine Gruen
    • Radical Madrasas in Southeast Asia By Scott Atran, Justin Magouirk & Jeremy Ginges
    • The Salafi-Jihad as a Religious Ideology By Assaf Moghadam
    • Somalia’s al-Shabab Reconstitutes Fighting Force By Anonymous
    • Deconstructing the Myth about al-Qa`ida and Khobar By Thomas Hegghammer
    • Return of the Arabs: Al-Qa`ida’s Military Role in the Afghan Insurgency By Brian Williams
    • After Action Report: An Army Lieutenant’s View of AQI’s Operations in al-Khidr and Hanaswa By First Lieutenant Jon Patrick Cheatwood
    • Recent Highlights in Terrorist Activity

Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

CATO

Center for Defense Information

Center for Security Policy

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Council on Foreign Relations

Defense Science Board (DSB)

Director of National Intelligence

EU Institute for Security Studies (ISS)

Federation of American Scientists

Foreign Policy Research Institute

Government Accountability Office (GAO)

Heritage Foundation

Human Rights Watch

International Crisis Group

ISN Security Watch

Joint Chiefs of Staff

Lexington Institute

Long War Journal

Pew Research Center

Potomac Institute

Rand

U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)

Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Thursday, February 14, 2008

DSB - another new report - DOD Energy Strategy

The Defense Science Board has posted their latest report. All reports can be found at http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports.htm

Their new "Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on DoD Energy Strategy "More Fight - Less Fuel" is available at http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2008-02-ESTF.pdf

This task force was chaired by Dr. James R. Schlesinger and General Michael P.C. Carns USAF (ret.). The report "examines DoD's strategy to achieve assured energy supplies of DOD missions." "The final report concluded that the DoD faces two primary energy challenges: unnecessarily high, and growing, batttlespace fuel demand compromises our operational capability and can jeopardize mission success; and critical missions at military installations are vulnerable to loss from commercial power outage and inadequate backup power supplies."

Monday, February 11, 2008

RAND Counterinsurgency Study -- Final Report

Rand has posted the final report of their Counterinsurgency Study series.

The central question the study attempted to answer was “How should the United States improve its capabilities to counter insurgencies, particularly those that are heavily influenced by transnational terrorist movements and thus linked into a global jihadist network?”

War by Other Means -- Building Complete and Balanced Capabilities for Counterinsurgency. RAND Counterinsurgency Study -- Final Report

Previous reports

New DSB report - Nuclear Weapons Surety - report on an Unauthorized Movement of Nuclear Weapons

The Defense Science Board (DSB) has posted their latest report
The Defense Science Board Permanent Task Force on Nuclear Surety: Report on the Unauthorized Movement of Nuclear Weapons.”

Other DSB reports are available
from the DSB report web site

“The Task Force report is an independent assessment of the systemic causes of the August 30 unauthorized movement of nuclear warheads from Minot AFB, North Dakota to Barksdale AFB, Louisiana. Based on the information and insights gained from investigating and assessing these systemic causes, the report includes 16 recommendations to strengthen nuclear weapons surety.”

Friday's Miscellany 02-08-2008

American Enterprise Institute

Amnesty International

BASIC

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

CATO

Center for American Progress

Center for Contemporary Conflict (CCC)
Strategic Insights (v. 7, no. 1, February 2008)

  • Energy Security: Current and Future Strategic Challenges
    * Introduction: Special Edition on Energy Security by Friedrich Steinhäusler, James A. Russell, and Daniel Moran
    * The Militarization of Energy Security by Daniel Moran and James A. Russell
    * Security of Energy: The Conflict after Next? by David W. Hamon and Arnold C. Dupuy
    * Energy Security or a New Globalization of Conflicts? Oil and Gas in Evolving New Power Structures by Uwe Nerlich
    * The Middle East: Petroleum Supply Security or Political Stability? by Naji Abi-Aad
    · Supply Chain and Infrastructure Security
    * Security Risks to the Oil and Gas Industry: Terrorist Capabilities by Friedrich Steinhäusler, P. Furthner, W. Heidegger, S. Rydell, and L. Zaitseva
    * Integrated Security Concept for the Oil and Gas Industry by P. Furthner and Friedrich Steinhäusler
    * Scenario Development in Oil and Gas Management: “Envisioning the Future” by Means of Analytical Techniques by James David Ballard and Fred C. Dilger
    * Severe Accidents in the Oil Chain with Emphasis on Oil Spills by Peter Burgherr and S. Hirschberg
    * A Guideline: Using or Creating Incident Databases for Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines by Achim Hilgenstock
    * Gas Analytical Technologies for Physical Protection of Oil and Gas Objects by Vladimir Gruznov and M. Baldin
    * Gas Analyzing System Based on Semiconductor Sensors for Providing Safety of Oil and Gas Pipeline Operations by O. Tolbanov, O. Anisimov, V. Sachkov, G. Sakovich, Alexander Vorozhtsov, N. Eisenreich, and M. Krausa
    * Inline Inspection from an Operator’s Point of View by Thomas Huwener
    * Remote Detection of Leaks in Gas Pipelines with an Airborne Raman Lidar by Sergey M. Bobrovnikov, Ilia B. Serikov, Yuri F. Arshinov, G. Sakovich, Alexander Vorozhtsov, and N. Eisenreich
    * Emergency Shut-Down Valve for Gas Pipelines by Alexander Vorozhtsov, V. Arkhipov, and I. Plekhanov
    Viewpoints: Emerging Resource Conflict Zones
    * Resource Wars: Energy, Resource Conflict, and the Emerging World Order with Michael T. Klare
    * Cold Front Rising: As Climate Change Thins Polar Ice, a New Race for Arctic Resources Begins by Barry Zellen
    * The United Nations Africa Union Mission in Darfur—UNAMID by Glen Segell

Center for Defense Information

Center for Security Policy

Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA)

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Committee on the Present Danger

Council on Foreign Relations

Department of the Interior Inspector General

Director of National Intelligence

EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS)

Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI)

Government Accountability Office (GAO)

Heritage Foundation

Institute for Science and International Security

International Assistance and Strategy Center

International Crisis Group

International Federation for Human Rights

Lexington Institute

Project on Defense Alternatives

Project on National Security Reform

Rand

Small Wars Journal

Stanley Foundation

Strategic Studies Institute

United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

United States Commission on Helping to Enhance the Livelihood of People (HELP)

USAF Chief of Staff

Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Afghanistan Study Group report

In case you didn't catch this one last week, the Afghanistan Study Group headed by Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering and General James L. Jones has been released and is now available.

Entitled "Revitalizing Our Efforts, Rethinking Our Strategies" it is available directly at http://www.thepresidency.org/pubs/Afghan_Study_Group_final.pdf or as a link from the Center for the Study of the Presidency's Afghanistan Study Group website http://www.thepresidency.org/Leadership/afghan.html

Monday, February 4, 2008

ODNI - new standards on reporting of Suspicious Activity related to terrorism

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has released
a set of standards for how local, state and federal law enforcement
agencies should share information about suspicious activity with
potential links to terrorism.

The Information Sharing Environment (ISE) Functional Standard (FS)
Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) ISE-FE-200
[version 1.0] is
available as a zipped file.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Friday's Miscellany 02-01-2008

American Enterprise Institute (AEI

Arms Control Association

Atlantic Council of the United States

BASIC

Brookings Institution

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Center for a New American Security

Center for American Progress

Center for Defense Information

Center for Security Policy

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Center for the Study of the Presidency

Commission on the National Guard and Reserves

Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)

Defense Science Board (DSB)

Department of Homeland Security

Department of Homeland Security. Inspector General

Dept of the Army

EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS)

Foreign Policy Research Institute

Government Accountability Office (GAO)

Heritage Foundation

Homeland Security Institute (HSI)

Human Rights Watch

International Crisis Group

Lexington Institute

National Defense Intelligence College Press

Naval War College

Rand

Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR)

Strategic Studies Institute

Union of Concerned Scientists

Washington Institute for Near East Policy