17 October 2012

Rwanda defense chief leads DR Congo rebels, UN report says
BBC News – Africa

In a report leaked to Reuters, the UN Security Council Group of Experts declare that Rwandan “M23 leaders ‘receive direct military orders’ from Rwanda’s chief of defence[sic] staff, Gen Charles Kayonga, ‘who in turns acts on instructions from the minister of defence[sic].’”

German winter shows Achilles heel of renewables: Wynn
Reuters

The extreme variability of wind and solar power in Germany is laid bare by 2012 data that also illustrates a particular vulnerability when power demand surges on cold winter days – they are often both weak at the same time.

Top Five Threats to National Security in the Coming Decade
Sandra I. Erwin, Stew Magnuson, Dan Parsons and Yasmin Tadjdeh/National Defense Magazine

The latest intelligence forecasts by the Obama administration and other sources point to biological weapons, nukes, cyber-attacks, climate change and transnational crime as the biggest challenges to U.S. and global security in the coming decades.

CIA operative killed in Afghanistan
AP

A senior U.S. defense official says an agent for the Central Intelligence Agency was among those killed in a suicide bombing at an Afghan intelligence office — the latest so-called “insider attack” in the war.

E.U., U.S. sanctions against Iran are clamping down on oil exports, agency says
James Ball/Washington Post

Stringent new sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union against Iran have curbed the country’s oil exports by more than 1 million barrels a day, according to new data released by the International Energy Agency.

Insurgent Bombs Spread Way Beyond Iraq and Afghanistan
Spencer Ackerman/Danger Room

Every month, outside either the U.S. former warzone or its remaining active one, militia groups construct approximately 600 cheap, homemade bombs to hide in ditches, roadsides, culverts and vehicles — nearly twice as many as they did two years ago.

A Regional Fix to the Iranian Nuclear Drama
Tytti Erästö/The Diplomat

The conference for a nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East offers a unique opportunity for the P5+1 and Iran to build mutual trust.

U.N. nuclear chief hopes for new Iran talks soon
Reuters

U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Yukiya Amano said on Wednesday he hoped a new high-level meeting with Iran about Tehran’s disputed atomic programme could be held “quite soon”.

Africa, West combine to rout militants in Somalia
Jason Straziuso/AP

Today, backed by a sweeping multinational effort that includes $338 million in U.S. equipment, wages and training, the force of Ugandans, Burundians, Kenyans and Somalis that was deployed to take on the country’s Islamic radicals can claim a degree of success that had initially seemed highly unlikely.

On Our Flashpoint Blog

What lessons from Somalia for an African-led intervention in Mali?
Matt Freear

As the new chair of the African Union’s political and security commission, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, took up her post yesterday, she vowed to tackle the growing ills of Mali and Islamic extremism in the Sahel . In large part, she was responding to last week’s United Nations Security Council resolution which empowered Africa’s regional institutions to come up with a solution, amid growing concern from the United States and others, about the convergence of crises in the west of the continent.

About the American Security Project: The American Security Project is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy and research organization dedicated to fostering knowledge and understanding of a range of national security issues, promoting debate about the appropriate use of American power, and cultivating strategic responses to 21st century challenges.