Latest news with #globalsecurity
Wall Street Journal
25-07-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
‘No More Napoleons' Review: Keeping Watch Over the Channel
Britain was one of the great ordering powers of modern history, first in Europe and then across the world. It was a leading voice in all of the major settlements—from the Congress of Vienna, which ended the Napoleonic Wars, through the Treaty of Versailles, which followed World War I, to the conferences of Yalta and Potsdam, which established the parameters of the postwar world, to the North Atlantic Treaty, which continues to shape global security today. At its height, the British Empire famously extended so far that the sun never set on it. Today those days are long gone, but Britain still plays a major role in the defense of Europe, leading the Nordic and Baltic containments of Russia. In this context, the appearance of Andrew Lambert's 'No More Napoleons: How Britain Managed Europe From Waterloo to World War One' is a salutary reminder that there is more than one way to achieve strategic effect. Much of the time, Britain ordered the Continent through large-scale interventions by legendary figures such as the Duke of Marlborough, the Duke of Wellington, Field Marshal Montgomery and the British Army of the Rhine, which never fired a shot but fulfilled its mission of deterring a Soviet attack on Western Europe. In recent times, the United States has taken on this role and its consequent global footprint of military bases and force deployments. Yet as Mr. Lambert, a professor of naval history at King's College, London, points out, during the long 19th century and up until World War I, London pursued a much more arm's-length policy in Europe. Exhausted by two decades of war against France, saddled with a huge debt and confined by a laissez-faire 'small-state' orthodoxy, British strategists sought a less expensive and intrusive way to maintain their interests on the Continent. They did this with a small army but a large navy and by knitting together a defensive system of forts and alliances designed to preserve the overall equilibrium—what Lord Liverpool, Britain's prime minister from 1812 to 1827, called a 'fair and proper balance of power in Europe between the different continental states'—on which Britain's security depended. We tend to think of the 19th century as the apogee of the British Empire, and that is not wrong given Britain's stupendous growth during that period, but Mr. Lambert shows that Europe was the main focus throughout. One particular bit of Europe—the English Channel—mattered most of all. The British government watched very closely the French building works at Cherbourg and their designs on the Belgian port of Antwerp because it was from there that an invasion of the south coast of England could be mounted. Security was very local.
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why China is Building a ‘Military City' 10 Times the Size of the Pentagon
China is building what is believed to be the world's biggest military command center. WSJ explains how this new base could reshape the global security landscape. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Wall Street Journal
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
What the U.S. Learned From the 12-Day War
In his Weekend Interview with Walter Russell Mead, 'The Strike on Iran Was 'Jacksonian' ' (June 28), Tunku Varadarajan notes that Israel is in many ways America's 'most reliable partner' in global security matters. Mr. Mead refers to the Jewish state as 'a fantastic ally' that spends a greater share of its gross domestic product on defense than does the U.S. In 2021, Ron Dermer, now Israel's minister of strategic affairs, predicted that Jerusalem would become Washington's most important ally. That, he admitted, was a big claim for a country the size of New Jersey. But a hypothetical helped to test it: If the U.S. had to choose only one ally, which would it choose?
Zawya
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Zawya
African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson received H.E. Dr. Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi, President of Interpol
Chairperson of the AU Commission, H.E. @ymahmoudali, received H.E. Dr. Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi, President of @INTERPOL_HQ. The Chairperson commended INTERPOL's vital role in promoting global security and law enforcement cooperation, and thanked Dr. Al-Raisi for his support to AFRIPOL. The Chairperson&Dr. Raisi reaffirmed their commitment to deepening AU–INTERPOL collaboration to combat transnational crime and enhance the rule of law across Africa. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Union (AU).
Al Arabiya
30-06-2025
- Business
- Al Arabiya
Invest in aid to build peace in troubled world: UN
Spending on aid is essential to promote peace in times of global turmoil and deep cuts to foreign assistance, the head of the UN Development Programme said Sunday. In an interview on the eve of a four-day UN conference in Spain that aims to rally fresh impetus for the embattled development sector, Haoliang Xu emphasized that investment in aid, trade and defense was 'not a zero-sum game.' 'International development cooperation is critical to build the foundations of peace,' said Xu, noting that a majority of the world's poor live in conflict-hit countries. Rich donors, notably the United States and European countries, have cut aid budgets and boosted defense spending as conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East upend global security. Military expenditure hit a record high of $2.7 trillion in 2024, up 20-percent from the previous year, said Xu. But the Chinese diplomat insisted that it was in wealthy countries' interest to support developing nations despite competing priorities and crises. 'Creating foundations for peace, investing in stability in fragile countries help reduce the burden in countries where you have challenges of migration, for example,' he said. 'Crises in one part of the world will have an impact on other parts of the world that are currently prosperous and stable,' added Xu. Last year, the world was afflicted by the highest number of armed conflicts since 1946, according to the Peace Research Institute Oslo. The World Bank says the number of extreme poor living on less than $3 a day in nations suffering conflict and instability is poised to hit 435 million by 2030. At least 50 world leaders are expected in Seville from Monday for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, the biggest such talks in a decade.
