Geopolitics, Strategy & Technological Rivalries

Military studies have shown that adversaries have shifted to the use of underground bunkers to protect against the U.S. military’s precision strike capabilities that combine satellite navigation with guided missiles and bombs. To counter American precision strikes, China, Russia, North Korean, and Iran began burying facilities and hardening them with …

For decades, China’s presence in Africa has largely focused on economic, commercial and peacekeeping activities. Now, Beijing is building on that by establishing greater military links to protect its national assets on the continent and gain greater geopolitical influence.   The world’s second-largest economy has long described Sino-Africa cooperation as …

The US’s  GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) is a precision-guided munition weighing 21,500 pounds and was dropped from a C-130 Hercules aircraft. The MOAB isn’t the heaviest non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal (that’s the 30,000-pound Massive Ordinance Penetrator ), but with a length of 30 feet and an …

Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) are surface-to-air missiles that can be carried and fired by a single individual or carried by several individuals and fired by more than one person acting as a crew. MANPADS were designed to be used by national military forces to protect their troops and facilities. With …

The claims by Nigeria’s government that terrorist group Boko Haram has been “defeated” continue to ring hollow. An attack by the terrorist group on an army base  in Nov 2018 led to as many as 100 soldiers being killed, Reuters reports. The attack has been attributed to Islamic State West …

Graphene is a 1-atom-thick layer of tightly bonded carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. Graphene the world’s first 2D nanomaterial, is widely regarded as the “wonder material” of the 21st century due to the combination of its extraordinary properties. As a single layer of graphite, it is the thinnest …

India’s principle of “strategic autonomy” remains strong, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, drawing an equivalence in ties with Russia, the U.S. and China and cautioning against a “return to the age of great power rivalries,” at a conference in Singapore in June 2018. Referring specifically to relations between India and …

The more than 6-year-old civil war in Syria has been a showcase for Russian-made arms. Russia has supported Assad and his forces, while the U.S. has helped moderate rebel groups and called for Assad to step down. “Syria is not a shooting range for Russian weapons, but we are still using …

Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) systems aim to: Identify the causes of a conflict, anticipate their outbreak, and mitigate their impact. The EWRS are mechanisms for preventing and addressing conflicts that focus on the systematic collection, processing and analysis of information (quantitative or qualitative) about conflict situations for the …

Sometimes thought of as the invisible army, private military and security companies (PMSCs) are part of a global, multi-billion-dollar industry. Private military firms are businesses that provide military and security services for their employers and have legal status. This new ‘Privatized Military Industry’ encompasses hundreds of companies, thousands of employees, …