Showing 1 - 10 of 22
Hazy geopolitics means Sudan conflict rages unseen
News, Peter Apps, Published on 28/05/2024
» Video released by Sudan's rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Wednesday shows the last few vehicles of aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres evacuating al-Fashir, the largest city in North Darfur, watched by the gunmen who have besieged the city and appear intent to overrun it altogether.
Red Sea raids push US and allies to crunch point
News, Peter Apps, Published on 15/01/2024
» When the United States and 11 allies published a joint statement last week calling for an end to Houthi attacks from Yemen on Red Sea shipping, they hoped the implicit threat of force might at least reduce the intensity of fire on foreign vessels.
Red Sea crisis presents US, allies with tough choices
News, Peter Apps, Published on 25/12/2023
» As the Pentagon asked allies to provide warships for an international task force to protect Red Sea commercial shipping from mounting drone attacks from Yemen last week, one of the United States' closest partners appeared to be holding back.
US now pulled back to refocus on Middle East
News, Peter Apps, Published on 14/10/2023
» Early on Sunday morning, less than 24 hours after Hamas launched the largest assault against Israel in more than 50 years, an unknown object or force wrenched aside and damaged the key undersea gas pipeline and fibre-optic cable linking Finland and Estonia beneath the Baltic Sea.
US Navy trainers preparing for a worldwide war
News, Peter Apps, Published on 28/08/2023
» As the US aircraft carrier Dwight D Eisenhower sat moored for maintenance last week in its home port of Norfolk, Virginia, many of her crew were below decks, engaged in training for a simulated conflict in the North Atlantic.
Drones reflect changing Middle East dynamics
News, Peter Apps, Published on 08/03/2019
» Ever since Sept 11, drones have been amongst the most visible, and often controversial, signs of American power in the Middle East and beyond. But as regional powers look to chart their own course, a new generation of cheaper unmanned aerial vehicles -- Chinese or locally built, with far fewer restrictions on their use -- are taking to the skies.
Who has the lead in the AI race?
News, Peter Apps, Published on 17/01/2019
» In October, 31 Chinese teenagers reported to the Beijing Institute of Technology, one of the country's premier military research establishments. Selected from more than 5,000 applicants, Chinese authorities hope they will design a new generation of artificial intelligent weapons systems that could range from microscopic robots to computer worms, submarines, drones and tanks.
The biggest security threats in 2019
News, Peter Apps, Published on 02/01/2019
» With an ongoing trade war between the United States and China, Russian military posturing in Eastern Europe at its greatest since the Cold War and the most unpredictable US administration in living memory, 2019 may offer no shortage of strategic surprises.
In Azov Sea, Putin plays a very deadly Ukraine game
News, Peter Apps, Published on 28/11/2018
» When Vladimir Putin opened a new bridge linking Crimea to the rest of Russia across the Azov Sea in May, Russian officials said it was intended to integrate the disputed peninsula -- seized by Moscow from Ukraine in 2014 -- into Russia's transport infrastructure. By limiting ships transiting the Kerch Strait beneath the giant central span of the bridge, however, it also gave the Kremlin the ability to control maritime access to an area of water roughly the size of Switzerland.
America's waning Middle East clout
News, Peter Apps, Published on 19/10/2018
» When it comes to defining America's quandary on Saudi Arabia, US President Donald Trump's description is mercenary in the extreme. If Washington doesn't stay close to Riyadh and sell it arms, he told reporters in the Oval Office this weekend, the Saudis will turn to Moscow or Beijing instead. Given that, he seemed to be suggesting, the United States should just keep its plans for a US$110 billion arms deal and the 450,000 jobs he says it would bring.