Expanding the Legacy
Tag: War
12 Posts
A New Axis of Evil Arises to Fight Aimless Wars
If it’s not Ukraine, it’s Gaza or Lebanon. Thankfully, little rocket man is keeping quiet and China, at least for now, seems content to limit its threats to Taiwan to lowkey utterances of displeasure. Every week or so, there is disconcerting news on major belligerence unfolding somewhere: Russia creeping up in the Donbas; Ukraine advancing into Kursk Oblast, or Israel preparing for a ground war against Hizbollah. Poor secretary of state Antony Blinken. He shuttles all over to douse fires, cool down hotheads, warn foes, and manage recalcitrant allies - without much to show for it.
Fighting for the Spoils: Warlords Duking It Out in Sudan
The deafening drumbeat of war and civil strife reverberating around the world, from Haiti to Taiwan, drowns out smaller, but no less deadly, conflicts elsewhere such as in Sudan. Here, powers of ill repute such as Russia, Iran, and a few other unsavoury warmongers are stoking a struggle between two factions intend on looting whatever is left of the perennially troubled country - the third largest in Africa after Algeria and the grotesquely misnamed Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Battlefield Ingenuity Gives Ukraine a Defensive Edge
The detection of incoming aircraft by sound has long been considered imprecise and impractical. That is, until Ukrainian nerds looked at the ancient technology and saw an opportunity to match it to artificial intelligence. A number of startups have now developed acoustic systems that can successfully detect incoming drones, missiles, and aircraft, and determine their heading, allowing defenders to either neutralise the threat or run for shelter.
NATO Boots-on-the-Ground in Ukraine
This is how a continent sleepwalks into war. It’s not that Europe desires war, or pines for it after a hiatus of seventy years. Rather, the continent is slowly being ushered into one by immutable circumstance over which it no longer has control. It happened before. In 1914, the German...
The Taciturn German to Watch
Germany and the Germans struggle to get comfortable donning the mantle of leadership circumstance has thrust upon the country. The nation and its leaders are visibly shocked by the rapid demise of the old world order and the unfolding ‘Zeitenwende’: the epochal tectonic shift that began with a global geopolitical rebasing and reached a disconcerting apex with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
The Tragic Triumph of Hope Over Experience: Great Power Folly
Wars of conquest seldom end well for the would-be conqueror even if waged against a weaker neighbour. Somehow, those to be subjugated always seem to find unity in a resolve to spoil the plans and designs of the aggressor. Their plight is not dissimilar from the one that motivated colonised people to take on the world’s largest empires – and eject them from their native land.
Paranoid and Haunted, President Putin Sees Nazis Everywhere
In President Vladimir Putin’s book everybody not excitedly cheering his ‘special military operation’ to liberate Ukraine is a Nazi. If the Russian press is to be believed, the worse of the lot are to be found in Finland and Sweden as those countries mull joining NATO – the new disguise of the Axis Powers. That blonde on platform shoes from Abba? A dancing Nazi. King Carl Gustav XVI? A royal Nazi. Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland? A closet Nazi. Her counterpart in Sweden Magdalena Andersson? A wannabe Nazi. The European Union? A conference of Nazis; and, of course, a thoroughly evil collective supporting its Ukrainian co-conspirator and Über Nazi Volodymyr Zelensky.
EU Battles String of Calamities
It’s about the only thing missing from a world in turmoil: France going haywire and off the rails. The solid showing of Marine Le Pen at last Sunday’s polls gives plenty of cause for concern. More moderate in her policy proposals and promises than five years ago, Ms Le Pen may no longer seek to extract her country from the European Union Now, she merely aims to undermine it.
Casting Russia Adrift
In a matter of days, Russia was unceremoniously cut off from the global financial system. Credit and debit cards stopped working, as did Apple Pay and a host of other services. Both Visa and Mastercard blocked Russian financial institutions from accessing their network.
Fortress Russia on Shaky Ground
The rouble took a pounding of note, losing almost a third of its value as soon as forex markets opened Monday morning. Equity trading was suspended whilst Russian financial authorities pondered the extent of the sanctions imposed over the weekend.
