ArcaMax

Somewhere in a storage room, I've a World War II submarine recognition pamphlet framed to display its intriguing title.

Published circa 1943, the pamphlet is no frills -- black ink submarine silhouettes and captions on white paper. The silhouettes depict U.S., British Commonwealth, Free French and Soviet Union subs, and, as I recall, a Dutch ...Read more

On Sept. 4, the Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic signed an agreement committing the two Balkan states to reach a mutually beneficial and permanent economic and trade normalization deal. The Trump administration brokered the agreement and hosted the signing ceremony in Washington.

No, it's not a peace ...Read more

The post-election turmoil shaking Belarus has the typical storyline of a geriatric dictatorship losing its ability to control by fear. The corruption and grinding poverty produced by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko and his regime's 26 years in power finally spurred a new reform-minded generation to challenge the dictator at the ballot box...Read more

In July, senior government officials in Taiwan and the U.S. warned that communist China was aggressively threatening Taiwan's independence. U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper contended Beijing had taken its intimidation "to a new level."

China's 1995-1996 "missile drizzle" operation, sometimes called the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis, set a high...Read more

This past week, the U.S. State Department and U.S. Department of Commerce launched new diplomatic, economic and legal initiatives designed to counter communist China's global malware and malgear offensive.

Right -- a malgear offensive.

Everyone with a smartphone understands malware, the cybersecurity portmanteau for "malicious software." ...Read more

In late July, the Trump administration announced that the U.S. Army's V Corps headquarters would be reactivated and permanently stationed in Poland. The Kremlin, its Twitter bots and Russian President Vladimir Putin's propaganda twits objected. Chinese Communist Party flacks likely hissed (if so, I missed it).

Reactions throughout still-free ...Read more

On Aug. 2, 1990, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard tanks and mechanized infantry invaded oil-rich Kuwait, igniting a war that would have several names, among them Kuwait War and Persian Gulf War. Though the war's major combat operation, Desert Storm, didn't begin until January 1991, Desert Storm would become the pop nickname...Read more

In a desperate attempt to remain in power, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dealt the Turkish republic's democratic structure a symbolic, historical insult so divisive it has the potential for serious, systemic political damage.

In so doing, the man derisively nicknamed Sultan Recep once again exposed his intense jealousy for Kemal ...Read more

Whiskey is for drinking. Water is for fighting. In less colorful words, securing water is worth going to war.

Ethiopia and Egypt are now engaged in a vicious struggle over Nile River water rights. Their confrontation began well over a decade ago.

If the opening epigram strikes you as cliche Hollywood western dialogue, then good chance you've ...Read more

Four years ago this week, the Chinese Communist Party declared war on international order in the form of a blunt rejection.

On July 12, 2016, The Hague's international arbitral tribunal, relying on the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea treaty (UNCLOS), issued a ruling supporting the Philippines' claims that China had violated Filipino ...Read more

In May 2019, Peter Mutharika, incumbent president in the southern African nation of Malawi, claimed a narrow reelection victory over opposition challenger Lazarus Chakwera.

Malawians, however, reported "voting irregularities." Investigators found altered vote tallies and evidence of tampering. A majority of the country concluded Chakwera had ...Read more

Beijing's June 30 decision to impose its national security law on Hong Kong renders the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 null and void. Promising one China, two systems, that treaty guaranteed Hong Kong's political autonomy through 2047.

So another Chinese Communist Party guarantee has entered the dustbin of history. Now tyrannical whim ...Read more