No End to National Security Surprises
![Photo credit: REUTERS/Larry Downing.](https://static.jstribune.com/jst-site/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/09135933/cia_n-1024x554.jpeg)
The surprise was total and horrific—Israeli men, women and children brutally killed or taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Israel’s vaunted intelligence services failed to provide adequate warning, its military—the Israeli Defense Forces—failed to provide adequate security, and Israeli political leadership remained cocooned in their comfortable assumptions about risks to Israeli security posed by Palestinians in […]
Russia’s Islamist Terror Threat Reemerges
![A suspect in the shooting attack before a court hearing in Moscow, Russia, March 25, 2024. Photo credit: REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov.](https://static.jstribune.com/jst-site/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/27162407/moscow_n-1-1024x554.jpg)
On March 22, Islamic militants opened fire on a concert hall in the Russian capital of Moscow, killing scores of concertgoers before setting the venue ablaze. Less than 24 hours later, the Islamic State terrorist group publicly took responsibility for the assault. The death toll currently stands at 137. While some reports link the attack to […]
The Outlook for European Security: An Uncertain Trumpet
![Poland Celebrates 25 Years In NATO. Photo credit: Beata Zawrzel via Reuters Connect.](https://static.jstribune.com/jst-site/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/18192251/nato_n-1-1024x554.jpg)
The American general Maxwell Taylor wrote a book published in 1960 under the title “The Uncertain Trumpet” about American defense complacency in the Cold War. It triggered a change in strategy. The trumpets of Jericho brought down walls. Today, a trumpet is needed to break through Europe’s walls of inertia and a comfortable “business as […]
After Two Years of the Russo-Ukraine War: The Role of Private Corporations
![Photo credit: STR via Reuters Connect.](https://static.jstribune.com/jst-site/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/07171727/starlink_n-1-1024x554.jpg)
One lesson of the Russo-Ukraine War is the growing role played by private corporations, both through participation in or circumvention of economic sanctions and business decision-making that directly affects the course of the fighting.
After Two Years of War: <Br> The West’s Strategic Choice in Ukraine
![Ukrainian President Zelensky meets with US President Biden at the White House, September 2023. Photo credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque.](https://static.jstribune.com/jst-site/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/29123411/ua_n-1-1024x554.jpg)
With support from Europe, the United States, and others, Ukraine has held off – and in part, beaten back – Russia’s campaign of conquest and subjugation. But Ukraine has not won, Putin seems determined to fight on, and the West seems beset by doubts as to whether continuing to back Ukraine is practical or worth […]
The Ukraine War After Two Years: Initial Military Lessons
![Ukrainian soldier defends Zaporizhzhia in south-eastern Ukraine. Photo credit: Dmytro Smolienko/Ukrinform/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect.](https://static.jstribune.com/jst-site/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/18181610/ukraine_n-1024x554.jpg)
As the war approaches the end of its second year, unless some dramatic development occurs to shift current trends – for instance, a collapse of NATO support for Ukraine or the death of Putin – it seems that the war is a long way from being decided or brought to an end. Initial lessons on […]
The Price of Greatness is Responsibility
![US President Joe Biden during his visit in Israel, October 18, 2023. Photo credit: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein.](https://static.jstribune.com/jst-site/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/06142841/biden_n-1024x554.jpeg)
Usually, history’s turning points are invisible to the living. Forks in the road are spotted by historians only long after events and their immediate repercussions have faded. But sometimes history visibly shifts for its participants onto a new course. We are now living through one of those turning points in history. 2023 was the year that […]
Reader’s Response: Russia is a Marginal Player in the Gaza War
![Photos credit: Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via REUTERS, Mohammed Talatene/dpa via Reuters Connect.](https://static.jstribune.com/jst-site/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/03022550/putin_n-2-1024x554.jpg)
The article by Stephen Blank of October 25, “Russia’s Role in the Gaza War,” provides much good evidence of Russia’s initial efforts to capitalize on the war for its own purposes. But that article may have overestimated the extent of Russian involvement in and influence over Hamas, Hizbullah and indeed over Iran. The Kremlin aspires […]
Defending the Basic Values of Humanity After October 7
![Hadas Kalderon, whose family members were killed and kidnapped on October 7, in the burned-out remains of her mother’s home, Kibbutz Nir Oz, October 30, 2023. Photo credit: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein.](https://static.jstribune.com/jst-site/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/02144527/czech_n-1024x554.jpg)
In Europe, we have fancied ourselves to be living in a postmodern world. But after the totalitarian assault by Russia against Ukraine and this month’s terrorist attack by Hamas against Israeli civilians, this dispassion is a luxury we can no longer afford.
Russian Policy and Hamas’ Assault: Putin Benefits From Chaos
![Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo credit: Sputnik/Aleksey Nikolskyi/Kremlin via REUTERS](https://static.jstribune.com/jst-site/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/02144108/putin_n-1024x554.jpeg)
If there is a winner emerging from the October 7 terrorist attack and subsequent war in Gaza, it is Vladimir Putin. On October 8, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia is interested in starting a war in the Middle East to “undermine world unity.” Russia may not need to start a full-blown war, but Zelensky understands that the current escalation in […]