Michael WoodsonThe Earthquakes of Erdogan
As an Economist headline editor put it recently, “Turkey sits at the crossroads of tectonic plates as well as civilisations.” And when the 7.8 magnitude earthquake centered near Gaziantep, Turkey caused a confirmed death toll of 50,783 souls, it highlighted the risk of autocratic license, boasting, and related corner-cutting to…
To Kill Autocrat Parasitism, Break the Autocratic Spell Over its Hosts
Prescription: By three key efforts parasitic autocracies can be removed: (1) honest diplomacy, psychological, and information operations with cyber-support that break the dictatorial spell over the host peoples wherever they are; (2) giving those physically battling the aggressive parasites a decisive, unfair advantage in eradicating the parasite; (3) aiding other…
China’s Interest in Saudi Arabian Investment in Iran
China’s diplomatic aid mending Saudi-Iranian relations in the Middle East sees Saudi Arabia immediately offering investment in Iran in the name of Saudi Arabia’s self-interest in regional stability. Yet Saudi Arabia’s investment in Iran would bolster the Iranian regime’s capability to perpetuate repression of its own people, continue as Russia’s chief overt weapons supplier, and…
Advocation: Stand-Up “R4 Corps” Volunteer and Selective National Service
Advocation: The U.S. should stand up an “R4 Corps” as a rapid civilian defense, freedom, and security workforce adapting to the rising militancy of autocratic nuclear and proxy powers. The Mission “R4” could mean “Restore-Recycle, Retrofit, Remake, and Repurpose,” four activities applicable to all weapons, aircraft, drones, robots, munitions, vehicles, vessels, ships, boats, submarines, machines,…
Tackling a Big History Lie Fueling Putin’s Xi-Jinping-Aided Aggression
Despite Beijing’s global posturing in support of national sovereignty it uses sleight of hand to export “dual use” technology (civilian and military) to supply Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine’s sovereignty. Yet Ukraine’s sovereignty is a matter of widespread international recognition. China’s strategy seems simple: tax Ukraine and the West to the point that it…
The Red Balloon: PRC Research Survey Ship Role?
Early morning February 12th, Japan’s Defense Ministry protested a Chinese PLAN survey vessel potentially violating Japan’s territorial waters, with Asahi Shimbun reporting seven such incidents since 2021. As of 2020, China’s research vessel fleet was the largest of research fleets in the Pacific according to CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), whose interactive map…
Russia’s Gray Warfare in Space Requires Gray Warfare Response
Reportedly, Russia put what was ostensibly a mobile satellite repair vehicle into Earth’s orbit to move among and service Russian satellites. In time, it showed its later purpose as a fragmentation shell with plasma boosters to put U.S. and other satellites in harm’s way of its debris stream. According to a Gizmodo report, shared with commentary…
Designate Wagner Group and Putin Regime as a Transnational Terrorist Joint Venture in Ukraine
Ukraine and similarly situated independent states on Russia’s periphery suffer under the U.N. fiction that international humanitarian law (law of war or IHL) governs to protect them from a U.N.S.C. veto-wielding Russia while it is under the sway of Putin’s expansionist regime. It does not. The buck has never stopped on a despotic Russian veto…
Balloons: Identify Payload, Source, and Best Practices
The payload of an atmospheric balloon, at whatever elevation, is usually what the balloon is carrying beneath it. We should also consider whether what is inside the balloon itself may be part of the payload. If not done already we should figure out how to discern all payload information before shooting down balloons of possible…
Russia’s Military Movements on Ukraine
Strategically it is best to see Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine in the context of his intelligence apparatus’s 20-year gray war of psychological, emotional, and political influence against targeted populations in the West. Among strategic objectives leading-up to the invasion of Ukraine Putin pursued a range of combined objectives to avenge the end of…