Det förefaller som om inget politiskt parti skulle vilja eller våga ta upp frågan om behovet av att köpa nya jaktplan till allvarlig diskussion, trots att de flesta är medvetna om att den tekniska utvecklingen håller på att gå förbi pilotstyrda plan.

Det russiske forsvaret lot seg provosere av den store Nato-øvelsen i Arktis i mai. Nå planlegger russerne en egen storøvelse. Forsker mener Norge må være sitt ansvar bevisst.

Spain will close the Gran Capitan base (Besmayah, Iraq) this summer, the most important of the Spanish troops in the country, where before the pandemic 350 of its 530 troops were deployed, the newspaper El País reported on Monday. Military sources point out that the tasks to which the troops deployed there were dedicated, consisting of the training of large units of the Iraqi Army and Police, have now been completed. The Ministry of Defence is also preparing the withdrawal of the last Spanish soldiers in Afghanistan for the end of this year or the beginning of 2021. Government sources consulted by La Vanguardia point out that the troops will be relocated to other parts of the world at the request of NATO and not by decision of the Government. […]

The first Spanish soldiers arrived in Afghanistan at the end of 2002, 18 years ago, and it has been the mission with the highest number of casualties of the Spanish Army, including the 62 dead in the Yak-42 tragedy. Due to the coronavirus, the activities of the Spanish military were interrupted several weeks ago. Spain then temporarily withdrew 65 military personnel. Now the final departure is being prepared. […]

The pandemic also forced the withdrawal of 100 Spanish soldiers from the 278 deployed in the European Union mission in Mali, which is dedicated to instructing the Malian Army. Despite this, Spain has not considered withdrawing troops, but even increasing them. The withdrawal in Asia can be favoured with a greater presence in the Sahel, a territory where the jihadist groups have become strong. In addition, there are major problems with the mafias, trafficking in drugs, arms or immigrants. The insecurity in this area of Africa represents a threat to Europe that is closer than instability in the Middle East. The European Union has just approved the fifth mandate of its mission in Mali until 2024 and has even increased the budget. Läs artikel

Kay Bailey Hutchison, the US permanent representative to NATO has said that the alliance’s troop withdrawal depends on American troop drawdown and that NATO would leave in coordination with the US at the same time. […]

In her interview with the VOA, she said that NATO would be continuing training and advising the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.

She called the political agreement between President Ashraf Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah as a great achievement, saying that NATO hopes the agreement led to a successful deal. She said that NATO and Afghanistan has proper vibes and that it remains committed to supporting the Afghan women. This is as Washington recently accelerated the American troops withdrawal from Afghanistan.

However, the US Secretary of Defense said that American troops pulling out from Afghanistan before the US presidential election is an option but not a “strong” one. Läs artikel

The German domestic dispute about its future role in NATO nuclear sharing is heating up again. But the discussion took a new turn when in May 2020 US Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher tweeted “If Germany wants to diminish nuclear capability and weaken NATO, perhaps Poland – which pays its fair share, understands the risks, and is on NATO’s eastern flank – could house the capabilities.” How much merit does this “perhaps” have?

NATO nuclear sharing is an arrangement in which the United States deploys about 150 nuclear free-fall bombs in Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey, of which about 80 are for delivery by European NATO aircraft. Berlin, Rome, Brussels and Amsterdam possess nuclear-certified planes and train their pilots on the nuclear mission, while several other Allies, including Poland, would support NATO nuclear operations with conventional air tactics (SNOWCAT).

In December 2015, asked if Poland would want to join NATO’s nuclear sharing program, Deputy Defence Minister Tomasz Szatkowski said, “concrete steps are currently under consideration.” Läs artikel

A new AAN special report looks at why the political vision of the 2002 Bonn Agreement and 2004 constitution with its promises of a representative democracy has failed to materialise. It finds answers in the huge levels of unearned foreign income that has flowed into Afghanistan since 2001, both aid and the money spent by foreign forces. This income has funded the government and been a major element of national income (GDP) for the last 18 years. Yet, as this report explores, it has sabotaged democracy and undermined the domestic economy. The report’s author, Kate Clark, here looks at why this topic is so important now, given the possibility that the income on which the Afghan state depends may dry up. […]

Afghanistan’s rent is made up of both spending by the various foreign armies deployed to Afghanistan and international aid. Looking at these two sources of income in the same light may seem strange given their very different aims. However, the rentier effect each has on Afghanistan’s political economy is the same. It might also seem that aid should have very different and far more positive consequences than rent from other sources. Not so, according to a World Bank paper; at least in terms of its impact on political institutions, it found, “aid is a bigger curse than oil.”14 What is significant is not whether there has been greater or less ‘aid effectiveness’. Rather, it is the magnitude of the aid, along with the spending by foreign armies, and how this distorts the state/citizen relationship and the economy, that has proved so deeply problematic for Afghanistan. Läs artikel

Amerikanske familier har bosatt seg i Vardø i forbindelse med opprustning av etterretningen mot Russland.

Til sammen er nå minst 14 amerikanske statsborgere bosatt i kommunen i forbindelse med etterretning, melder NRK.

Det er inngått leiekontrakter av boliger for mulig leie i minst tre år, og barna har begynt på skole. Militærfamiliene fra USA har bosatt seg i Vardø for å oppføre en ny etterretningsradar. Vardø ligger bare 28 kilometer fra Russland, nært de viktigste militære anleggene i landet på Kolahalvøya. […]

Oberstløytnant Tormod Heier ved Forsvarets høgskole venter reaksjoner fra Russland.

– I prinsippet er det slik at alt som avviker fra et kjent mønster, vil bli oppfattet som en provokasjon og et avvik. Altså det som ikke følger de lange linjene i norsk forsvars- og sikkerhetspolitikk, og som bryter med de forutsigbare signalene som Norge sender til Russland.

Han mener det ikke er god norsk politikk å tillate amerikansk bosetting i Vardø.

– Jeg tror det beste hadde vært å sende norske operatører til USA for opplæring der, slik at de kunne ha gjort jobben. Det ville både Russland, USA og Norge vært tjent med, sier Heier. Läs artikel

Försvarsminister Peter Hultqvist satt med som huvudattraktion i SvT-programmet Ekdal och Ekdal den 26 maj. Man diskuterade den nya världsordningen där Kina befäster sin makt på område efter område och där USA backar och drar sig ur allt fler multilaterala sammanhang.

Alla är överens om att en ny och helt oviss situation är på väg för Europa, Norden och Sverige, som man måste orientera sig i och slå vakt om sina egna intressen. Väldigt mycket står på spel.

Men när frågan ställs om detta till Peter Hultqvist återgår allt till vad som gällde tidigare, då man ännu kunde bortse från Kinas framträdande på världsscenen och då det var Putinryssland som utmålades som det stora hotet, som man var tvungen att ta skydd emot av USA och Nato för att avskräcka Putinryssland från att anfalla Finland, Baltikum, Sverige, Norge och övriga Europa.

Men nu gäller sedan en tid alltså något helt annat – som visserligen diskuterats länge på undanskymda platser som denna blogg – men som nu plötsligt diskuteras av alla, till och med av Carl Bildt.

Läs artikel

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