Tag: Military

Bin Laden’s Catastrophic Success: Al Qaeda Changed the World—but Not in the Way It Expected

Chin@Strategy

On September 11, 2001, al Qaeda carried out the deadliest foreign terrorist attack the United States had ever experienced. To Osama bin Laden and the other men who planned it, however, the assault was no mere act of terrorism. To them, it represented something far grander: the opening salvo of a campaign of revolutionary violence that would usher in a new historical era. Although bin Laden was inspired by religion, his aims were geopolitical. Al Qaeda’s mission was to undermine the contemporary world order of nation-states and re-create the historical…

Why Nation-Building Failed in Afghanistan

Chin@Strategy

ISTANBUL – The United States invaded Afghanistan 20 years ago with the hope of rebuilding a country that had become a scourge to the world and its own people. As General Stanley McChrystal explained in the run-up to the 2009 surge of US troops, the objective was that the “government of Afghanistan sufficiently control its territory to support regional stability and prevent its use for international terrorism.” Why Nation-Building Failed in Afghanistan Afghan Presidential Palace via Getty Images Daron Acemoglu explains why the West’s top-down approach to establishing state institutions…

The new US Air Force secretary wants to ‘scare China’

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — After being sworn in as the U.S. Air Force’s top civilian, Frank Kendall went straight to the budget books. Kendall, a former Pentagon acquisition chief who is well-acquainted with the world of military technology, immediately immersed himself in the Air Force’s fiscal 2023 budget and directed a number of last-minute adjustments to the plan. The goal, Kendall told Defense News in an exclusive Aug. 13 interview, should be to field the kinds of leap-ahead technologies that “scare China.” But whether the Air Force can do that depends on…

The Fall Of Afghanistan And U.S. Foreign Trade

Chin@Strategy

TOPSHOT – Taliban fighters in Kandahar on August 13, 2021. (Photo by – / AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via … [+] Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban upon U.S. withdrawal raises concerns about our country’s foreign trade in general. Will our export markets continue to buy our products, and will our import sources continue to supply us with goods and services? In most cases, the Afghan experience will have little impact, but watch out for what happens in countries dependent on U.S. military protection. Direct…

Deathly Quiet: The Navy Can’t Kill China’s Submarines If It Cant Find Them

Chin@Strategy

Here’s What You Need To Remember: The PLA Navy may be poised to overcome a technological and tactical defect that has plagued it since its founding. Word has it that China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA Navy) has staged a breakthrough in submarine propulsion. At any rate, that’s the word from marine engineer Rear Admiral Ma Weiming, a specialist in electromagnetic systems. Admiral Ma recently reported on state-run CCTV that shipwrights are installing shaftless rim-driven pumpjets in China’s “next-generation nuclear submarines,” meaning attack or ballistic-missile boats. (Click here for a layman’s description of pumpjet technology.) Ma crowed that Chinese engineers are “now way ahead…

Why the next major war is likely to start in Taiwan

Chin@Strategy

If the United States and China get into a shooting war, there is a good chance it would start in Taiwan, which the Chinese communists view as a renegade province. It’s no secret that China has long wanted to conquer the island nation, where nationalist forces retreated in 1949 after losing to the communists in China’s civil war. The U.S government provides Taiwan with military equipment, much to China’s chagrin. After the State Department announced on Aug. 4 that the U.S. government is selling Taiwan $750 million worth of weapons,…