Expeditionary wars: what legitimacy?

After my previous post dedicated to failing, or failed states, I got a reply leaving me in a bad mood, as I was reminded that France's duty was to intervene in Mali at least to rescue its citizens living there (they are said to be around 5,000) and if deemed necessary to protect its national interests. That's right. In my attempt to explain the vacuity of supporting failed/failing states I could have been more accurate.

Well, Let us look a little bit more closely at the reasons for which a democracy may decide to deploy troops in a third country. You will read here below a graph, which still can be improved as this is just a prototype. This graph encompasses two different axis and a green triangle:
The vertical axis depicts the degree of cynicism having lead to the dcision to launch an operation;
The horizontal axis, on the contrary, shows how much universalism can weigh in the balance;
The triangle represents the area in which a good communication policy can drive the support of the public opinion in a democratic country.

Kings of War: The red-line of chemical weapons and Syria.

I am just copying this link of Kings of War blog.
You are advised to read this cold-blooded assessment of entering the Syrian conflict.
The red-line of chemical weapons and Syria.

The vain support to failing states, going back to Clausewitz

Some days ago I had the opportunity to attend  to a colloquium dealing with European Defence. At this occasion, I decided to cross the Rhine (peacefully) and went to Strasbourg.  

One lecture was dedicated to Mali and the three military operation taking place over there. The speaker, Mr Dupuy, chairman of a French think tank named "IPSE" (no website available), although talentuous, was facing all the contradictions of current operations in Mali, explaining that the French commitment was absolutely needed although disrupting the terrorists would not solve the problem, if they were to be disrupted. Those explanations seem to have left a large part of the audience skeptical about the French goals in Mali and the final end state.

About Maps and Wars

As some European countries have decided to commit a little bit more assets in support of the French Armed Forces in Mali, time has come to have a closer look at the operations map. A long time ago, General De Gaulle wrote, that Geography drives the history of a country. Well, let's have a look at the operations map of this region of the world. 

Why should we have a look at maps? Indeed, having still in mind some pieces of History, I perfectly remember those pictures of field officers first looking at a map before deciding of the scheme of maneuver they would decide of, in order to disrupt the enemy units. This is exactly what the French Armed Forces are remarkably doing in the mountains up there, in Northern Mali.

However, among the scarce news broadcasted by the French MOD, I couldn't find anyone giving me a clue of the area in which their infantrymen are operating. 

What could I do?

The Last Moonshiners of European Defence, or how solitary military operations will very soon belong to history

Drifting on the web is one of my favorite games. Today, I would like to deal with those I would like to name the last Moonshiners of European Defence.

How is it the hell possible to draw a parallel between the late Popcorn Sutton, a renowned Appalachian moonshiner, and European powers?

Let me tell you!

First of all, as less than a quarter of my readers are Americans, here are some details on the Appalachian moonshiners. Those guys have been illegally making liquor for generations and belong to the American traditions. One of them, a iconic figure was named John 'Popcorn' Sutton, and he will be at the centre of this post. In the documentary that you can see here below, this 62 years old man, riding an Ford-T pick-up states:

'This is the last dam run of likker I'm ever gonna make'.

Eurocorps and other multinational Headquarters are not planned to deploy in Mali

On a pretty regular basis I can read on the requests leading to this humble blog (I claim the word 'humble', when I compare the content of this blog to the ones listed in the blogroll), that some people had typed 'Eurocorps' and 'Mali' as keywords. My conclusion is that some pedagogy on European Defence is still needed. Therefore this article will be useless for those who are skilled in defence matters and is intended to the newcomers.

Well, let us start from the very beginning: there are three types of multinational operational headquarters. As the French operation in Mali is of land-centric type, i.e involving mainly land forces, let us focus on land headquarters.

Some Reasons for which France will remain alone in Mali

Now that French Army has reached a deserved initial military success in Mali, time has come to look forward and check whether its allies will at last decide to join and support France in its efforts to expel islamists from this country (as far as I could understood it seems to be the final objective).

For fun, I will not make use of a traditional strategic analysis, but I will try to make use of Mr Ben Polak's lectures at Yale, available on the Internet (here). Being an absolute math-, eco- and calculus-phobic I will try my best.

France in Mali: a military success and a strategic dead end

Usually I am a great fan of O. Kempf, the author of Egea, the must among the blogs dedicated to strategic studies, at least in French language. However, some days ago I was surprised by one of his articles, titled: "Mali, les permanences géopolitiques s'imposent...", that could be translated as: Mali, the standing geopolitical rules still prevail...".

What does then O. Kempf deal with?

Mali: Is European Union to be ashamed?

Some days after France decided to deploy its troops in Mali, a quick look at the blogs and media dealing with defence and strategy let me deduce that, once again, Europe was sentenced to whatever you want for having been unable to react on time to counter the islamist threat coming from the Sahara.

Let us get deeper into the funniest critic I could read. I mean the lack of support by our main allies.

Indeed, that's a fact: neither the UK, nor Germany, even less Spain and Italy or Poland provided troops to reinforce the French ones. The only significant support they decided to offer, beyond the usual political backing, are transport aircraft, like C-17 by the UK and the USA, Transall by Germany and C-130 by Belgium, for instance. I was even told that this support was constrained by many caveats or even by the price!

Gangnam Style & European Defence: world's centre of gravity is shifting

Today, while speaking about our respective blogs, my daughter suggested me something foolish: draw a link between European Defence and Gangnam Style.

First assumption: Psy, the singer has never heard about European Defence. O.K, this is an easy statement. But it deserves being done, as a matter of principle.

Europe, Desperatly Looking for a Strong German Military Leadership

Quite provoking, isn't it? Despite the title, I do not believe that any political leader or chief of defence will dare express such a statement. However ''the times they are a changin'! "and the German military leadership could constitute the next political challenge for European Defence.

Maritime Security : between fierce competition and legal maze

Some days ago I read a post able to raise my curisosity and bring me back to this blog.

On a French Blog titled 'Lignes de Défense', the author wrote a short article dedicated to the fierce competition in the field of maritime security. A French company, named 'Triskel Security Services' (I would bet that they find their origin and are operated by former French Navy commandos), had lost some important contracts, being ousted by low cost competitors, for some based in Sri Lanka.

Looking back at Libya whilst thinking of Syria

On "Kings of War", Rob Dover has published a short analysis of Syrian military capabilities, thus demonstrating that one should not compare the situation with Libya.
You can read below:
 ,Looking back at Libya whilst thinking of Syria.

Is Libya turning into Anarchy?

Following this link, you will see a Libyan militia vandalizing a Commonwealth War Cemetery.
Desecration of Commonwealth war graves in Libya
It may happen. In France, in Germany, anywhere in the world one can find heroes willing to show their courage while kicking down gravestones.

Germans should not be ashamed for not waging war on Libya

Some days ago we had dinner with German friends. Despite the delicious alsatian wine (Gewürztraminer for those who are interested in oenology), they expressed some sorrow and even felt ashamed: they regarded their country as a nation absolutely unable to defend human rights and slaughtered populations, even in Europe's backyard.

Johnny Cash: a short glance on American society (1)

Some days ago, I expressed my wish to write on Johnny Cash. Firstly because I am a fan, secondly his songs, or the ones he decided to sing usually display in a very short time a very accurate picture of American society.

Today, I will comment 'The one on the right', published on Youtube by somebody named 'Bacobitsperson'.

For those who are not so to say 'fluent', here are the lyrics: 

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/johnnycash/theoneontherightisontheleft.html

Euro Crisis: short comparison between North and South

Such a turmoil surrounds the Euro crisis that day after day we less and less understand whether the latest summit will put an end to the debate, and our concerns!

However, we rarely hear news from the reasons for which our heads of state are so worried. In fact he main problem is that they find themselves in such a pressure that they propose us short term and immediate solutions for a structural downfall of southern Europe, namely Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy and, in some extend, France.

The Euro original sin comes in fact from diverging economies confronted with a single currency. On the one side, countries with structural deficits, that they can finance only with a recurse to the public debt. Thanks the Euro, borrowing money is easy and helps the governments avoid to implement painful and politically dangerous reforms, e.g reducing public subsidies to large parts of the population or cease to support outdated industries. In parallel, they simply forgot to implement the necessary measures to develop innovative industry, which is the main money maker of Northern Europe countries.

During the same years, countries like Germany, Finland, Sweden, Austria succeeded in reforming their economic and social systems, while maintaining a high-tech industry, at the price of some unpopular decisions, like German Chancellor, G. Schroeder, did in the mid-2000 when he subsequently lost the parliamentary elections.

Currently the level of debt in South Europe has become so high, that nobody believes that they will be able to pay back: they simply do not own the industrial basis able to generate enough added value, and therefore income, to make the states prepare budgets, which could include both the internal political constraints and the external debt. By internal political constraint I mean: pursue with a large and generous social policy and reimburse the debts.

The current crisis is firstly a crisis of confidence against the policies of some European countries, not a against the Euro by itself.

My only concern, at least for the time being, is that short term solution never solve a long term issue. That means that southern countries will have to address now the changes they have refused for many years... This, will be really painful for the populations!

Johnny Cash and Geopolitics

As a starter, I would like the readers to have a look at Johnny Cash biography, available on Wikipedia, or on his official Website.
From time to time, I will write posts on Geopolitics according to Johnny Cash. You don't believe it?
You will be surprised!

Euro crisis vs European Defence

Euro crisis has been at the top of the agenda for several months. Simultaneously, European Defence vanished and completely failed some years ago. Therefore ESDP was totally absent from the scene when France and the UK decided to wage war against Libya. Is it definitely passed away? I persist saying no, definitely no. Until today no crisis has been severe enough to force our countries to hand over symbols of their sovereignty, as they were still thinking they could play war by themselves. Although the countries taking part to the air campaign against Gaddafi claimed supporting democracy and freedom, I would be that optimistic on the effectiveness of this military operation: 

Back on the Web

Hi, everybody, after a long long era of silence, F. is back on this blog. Reason for my absence were: -a move, with all the consequences on my private life (no detail available), -some reading an writing on Sun Tzu, -many posts on another platform, -some reading and writing on the financial crises, -a new and demanding assignment. Now, I am back, hopefully definitely, I think the content will change: -geopolitics and strategy, -comments on some books related to my favorite topics, -videos of educational songs, and... anything which may educate us, ... and make me have an interested look on the planet I am living on.