Dotty Domains: The Pentagon’s Mali Typo Leak Affair

Dotty Domains: The Pentagon’s Mali Typo Leak Affair

Fleet-footed agility and sharp thinking rarely characterise the plodding bureaucrat. An argument can be made that different attributes are prized: cherished incompetence, spells of inattentiveness, and dedication to keeping things secret with severity. What matters is not what you did, but what you pretended to do. Even with maintaining secrecy, the plodding desk-job hack can…

The U.S. Still Spends More on Its Military Than Over 144 Nations Combined

The U.S. Still Spends More on Its Military Than Over 144 Nations Combined

World military spending reached a new record high of $2.4 trillion in 2022, with the United States spending the most by far. The United States remains the world’s largest military spender by far, with its $877 billion representing 39% of global military spending. That’s three times as much as the second largest spender, China, which…

The Army We Don’t See. The Private Soldiers Who Fight in America’s Name

The Army We Don’t See. The Private Soldiers Who Fight in America’s Name

The way mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his private army have been waging a significant part of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has been well covered in the American media, not least of all because his firm, the Wagner Group, draws most of its men from Russia’s prison system. Wagner offers “freedom” from Putin’s labor…

The Difference Between Secrets and Lies – Can the White House Even Understand the Difference?

The Difference Between Secrets and Lies – Can the White House Even Understand the Difference?

Recent developments in Washington relating to Ukraine and the Middle East remind me that there is a big difference between maintaining secrecy when a situation warrants it and lying over issues where there is no compelling reason to do so beyond political expediency. Having spent more than twenty years in American intelligence agencies where secrecy…

Unwarranted Influence, Twenty-First-Century-Style

Unwarranted Influence, Twenty-First-Century-Style

The military-industrial complex (MIC) that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned Americans about more than 60 years ago is still alive and well. In fact, it’s consuming many more tax dollars and feeding far larger weapons producers than when Ike raised the alarm about the “unwarranted influence” it wielded in his 1961 farewell address to the…

It’s Not Surprising That the Pentagon Leaks Claimed That the Global South Is Multi-Aligning

It’s Not Surprising That the Pentagon Leaks Claimed That the Global South Is Multi-Aligning

The Washington Post’s latest report about the Pentagon leaks proves that there are very real limits to the US’ influence over the Global South nowadays, which discredits the expectation that it can force every country to take its side against Russia and China. Be that as it may, the strategic situation also isn’t as dire…