Redaktionen

Turkey is fully committed to its responsibilities to NATO, its defence minister told Reuters, amid concern amongst some Western allies that Ankara may be tilting away from the West.

Last month, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey wants to be a partner in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) – a security, political and economic club launched in 2001 by Russia, China and Central Asian states as a counterweight to Western alliances.

Defence Minister Yasar Guler said in a written interview that Turkey’s membership of NATO does not prevent it from developing relations with the SCO.

”Apart from that, our priority is to fulfil our responsibilities to NATO as an important ally and to strengthen the solidarity with our allies. Our focus should be that NATO is prepared, determined and strong,” he added.

Ankara’s interest in the BRICS group of nations and its friendly ties with Russia, namely in energy, tourism and defence, have stirred fears among Western nations that Turkey’s alliances may be pivoting. However, Ankara has repeatedly said it remains a committed NATO ally. Läs artikel

24. juli 2024 udgav det amerikanske forsvarsministerie (US Department of Defense, DoD) sin længe ventede nye arktiske strategi.

Strategien er bemærkelsesværdig, fordi den sætter samarbejde med allierede i højsædet og understreger nogle konkrete muligheder for Danmark.

Særligt fire geopolitiske ændringer i og omkring Arktis gjorde det nødvendigt at erstatte den tidligere strategi fra 2019: Ruslands storstilede angreb på Ukraine i 2022, Finland og Sveriges tiltrædelse i Nato, stigende samarbejde mellem Kina og Rusland, samt tiltagende konsekvenser af klimaforandringerne.

Den nye strategi lægger sig op ad den amerikanske nationale sikkerhedsstrategi og den nationale arktiske strategi, begge fra 2022, og bruger slagordet ”overvåg-og-reager” fra den nationale forsvarsstrategi fra 2022 som ledestjerne i den nye tilgang til Arktis.

Strategiens mål er, at ”DoD, i samarbejde med vores allierede og partnere, bevarer Arktis som en stabil region, hvor U.S. hjemlandet forbliver sikkert, og vitale nationale interesser varetages”. Dette skal opnås igennem tiltag indenfor tre indsatsområder: enhance, engage, og exercise (udbygge, engagere, og øve). Läs artikel

An interesting new article in the prominent American journal, “Foreign Affairs”, by three academics from Georgetown University, argues that “Washington should place less emphasis on slowing down China and more on improving its own innovative prowess.”

The authors stress how, with the most advanced chip-making, the quest is to secure yet higher operational speed using still less energy. Meanwhile, much can be achieved using tag-team-chips, where multiple less powerful chips, known as chiplets can form a single, higher-performing package. Other related strategies can also be used.

China is making effective use of these and other approaches as it works around the stated objective of US chip export controls, which are aimed, it is said, at: denying China the cutting-edge AI capabilities it could use to modernize its nuclear and conventional weapons. Although this is meant to be the laser-focus of US containment strategies, in fact, slowing China’s general high-tech development, is central to America maintaining its competitive economic advantage, according to US National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan.

The writers also argue that this fundamental emphasis on export controls is suppressing US high-tech access to the massive, rapidly advancing Chinese market, thus denying serious income to that sector, while redirecting a large segment from the huge pool of Chinese spending power towards boosting Chinese chip development. Läs artikel

A memorandum of understanding on science and technology cooperation was renewed by the National Science and Technology Council and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) July 4 in Taipei City.

The new pact was signed by Yeh Chih-cheng, director general of NSTC’s Department of International Cooperation and Science Education, and SSF CEO Lars Hultman, with NSTC Deputy Minister Chen Bing-yu witnessing the event. It will help further strengthen academic and technological sector bonds while advancing research collaboration and personnel exchanges, the NSTC said.

During the ceremony, Chen said that Sweden is one of the top innovative countries globally, adding that its outstanding sustainability practices are especially worthwhile for Taiwan to emulate. Läs artikel

China on Friday initiated dispute settlement proceedings against the EU’s provisional anti-subsidy measures against Chinese EVs at the WTO to safeguard the interests of its electric vehicle industry’s development and global green transition cooperation.

The findings in the EU’s preliminary ruling lack factual and legal basis, seriously violate WTO rules, and jeopardize the overall situation of global cooperation in addressing climate change. We urge the EU to immediately rectify its wrong practices and jointly safeguard China-EU economic and trade cooperation and the stability of the EV industry and supply chains. Läs artikel

Hundratusentals är de värnpliktiga som på slingrande grusvägar har hatat och älskat svensk arméns cyklar – som sades kunna klara en granatträff.
Militärcyklarna är sedan länge borta från Försvarsmakten, men fortfarande rullar hundratals exemplar i civilt bruk på svenska vägar.

Cykeln började användas av arméer runt om i världen i slutet av 1800-talet. Sverige fick sitt första cykelinfanteri år 1901. Från år 1901 och fram till 1977 utvecklade den svenska försvarsmakten flera numera klassiska modeller. Mest känd är modell 42 (m/42) som såg dagens ljus under andra världskriget och som idag har kultstatus. […]

Införandet av cykel i det svenska försvaret innebar en strategisk revolution för infanteriet. Med cykel kunde trupp röra sig dubbelt så snabbt, än till fots. Hastigheten, smidigheten och ljudlösheten var stora strategiska fördelar. Cyklar behövde dessutom inte bränsle, vilket i sin tur innebar att man slapp krävande försörjningslinjer. Läs artikel

Frida Stranne är docent i Freds- och utvecklingsforskning med inriktning på amerikansk utrikes- och säkerhetspolitik. Hon har regelbundet vistats i Washington DC de senaste dryga 20 åren och gjort flertalet fältstudier runt om i USA. Hon är (med)författare till böckerna ”Supermakten – vad varje svensk bör veta om USA” (Mondial 2020) och Illusionen om den amerikanska freden (Ordfront 2023).

I sin Mittårsrapport pratar Frida Stranne om vikten av att syna västvärldens dubbelmoral och att vi måste kräva av våra politiska ledare att bryta militariseringen och se oss själva i spegeln. Hon talar även om hur omöjligt det blivit att prata om fred i en tid där kontext och historia inte längre anses viktigt och svaret på alla frågor blivit militära. Lyssna på podden

[…] The two economies are so entangled that the 2008 Great Recession would have become a global depression had Washington and Beijing not both responded with a coordinated stimulus. And while another Great Depression would not strictly be “existential” for either, when we recall that the depression in the 1930s fueled the rise of Fascism, Nazism, and Communism leading to the Second World War, neither want to see something like that again. Moreover, beyond these three, limiting dangers posed by transnational threats from pandemics and global terrorism to the spread of nuclear weapons requires coordination and cooperation.

Can nations be intense rivals and serious partners at the same time? Are these not competing and even contradictory imperatives? In an either-or world in which everything is black or white, friend or foe, it would seem that one would have to trump the other. However, in the business world, leaders often engage in what is called “co-optition.” For example, Apple and Samsung are ruthless competitors in selling high-end smartphones. But who is a major supplier of components for Apple’s smartphones? Samsung. When Apple’s CEO Tim Cook is asked how one of his major competitors can also be his major supplier of components, he says, “Life is complicated.” Läs artikel