OE Watch, Vol 08, Issue 03, Mar 2018 (Mobile Edition)

Stability In Africa

AFRICA
3 Turkey’s Expanding Military Presence in Africa
5 Foreign Forces in Africa
6 Mali’s Civil Protection Challenge
7 Why Can’t Kenyan Forces Defeat al-Shabaab in Kenya?
8 The Destabilizing Stability Doctrine
9 Abubakar Shekau…Dead Man Running
10 The Risk of the “Somalization” of the Sahel
11 Boko Haram Psyop on Chibok Girls Continue
12 Conflict, Cash, and Cholera
13 Namibia: Hangry Soldiers

MIDDLE EAST, NORTH AFRICA
14 Turkey Eyes Police/Military Cooperation with Azerbaijan
and Kyrgyzstan
15 Egypt-Turkey Friction Over Political Order in the “Levant
Basin”
17 Iran: Warship Sinks after Mishap
18 Iran: Telegram Giving Data to US and Israel
18 Iran Develops UAS with “Smart Bomb” Capability
19 Iran: US Sponsoring Islamic State in Afghanistan
20 Iran: Winning Hearts and Minds in Deir Ezzor
22 Raqqa’s Minefields

LATIN AMERICA
24 Military Training Key to Panama’s Success in Counter Drug
Operations
25 Venezuela Continues to Disappear
26 Venezuela’s PDVSA on the Verge of Collapse, Deepening
the Country’s Economic Crisis
27 Colombian Urban What-Is-Wrong List
28 What Did FARC Leaders Expect?
29 Peruvian Cocaine Production Associated with Possible
Shining Path Resurgence?
30 Cuba to Build Massive Windfarms with Chinese Assistance
31 Mexican Army Seizes Claymore Mines, Rifles, and Drugs in
Tamaulipas

ASIA-PACIFIC
32 MILF Leaders Seek Lessons Learned from Indonesia
33 Indonesia, Malaysia Have Right of Hot Pursuit in
Philippines
34 Papua New Guinea Balances Between China and Australia
35 Maldives: Troubled Waters in the Indian Ocean and
Growing Relations with China
36 Maldives: Troubled Waters in the Indian Ocean and
Growing Relations with China
37 Xinjiang Ethnic Harmonization by Quartering and
Relocation
38 Is China’s Afghanistan Strategy Modeled on Russia in Syria?
39 China’s Evolving Nuclear Strategy: Will China Drop “No First
Use?”
41 China Promotes Increased Maritime Capabilities
42 Photos Paint a Point of No Return over the Disputed South
China Sea
43 Chinese Su-35s Fly Patrols in the South China Sea for the
First Time
44 Chinese Aviation Academies Introduce Free Air Combat
Training

CAUCASUS, CENTRAL AND SOUTH ASIA
45 Is the Chinese Air Force Ramping up for Further Action
Following the 2017 Doklam Standoff?
46 Another Potential Hit to China-Pakistan Relations
47 CPEC: “Iron Brothers,” Unequal Partners
49 Mirziyoyev’s Reforms Reach the National Security Service
(SNB)
50 The Russian-South Ossetian Armed Forces Agreement
Takes Shape

RUSSIA, UKRAINE
51 Considering Information War
52 General Gerasimov on the Syrian Campaign
55 The Development of the Forpost UAV
57 Specialist Training for Russian UAV Pilots
58 Russia Developing Top-Attack Tank Mine
59 Russian Expeditionary Capabilities, a Relatively Low Priority
62 Engineer Troops Organizational Reforms
64 Promised Pay Raise for Military
65 Sacrificing Beans for Bullets
66 Strengthening Civil Defense
67 Pros and Cons of Legalizing Private Military Companies
68 The Russian Narrative of US Biological Weapons Research in
the CIS
70 Ukrainian Perception of Javelin
71 The Eastern Military District and Pacific Fleet Control the
Eastern Entrance to the Russian Arctic
72 Arctic S-400 reaches operational status
73 Birthrate Soars Among Service Families in the Arctic
74 Career Appeal of KGB
75 “Russia’s Patriot Act”: New Law Empowers FSB
76 His Holiness Patriarch Cyril Tells Parliament What Keeps Him Up
at Night
77 The “Electronic Concentration Camp” of National
Cryptocurrencies
78 Russian Speculation about the Cryptoyuan

The Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is part of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command G-2, whose mission is to Understand, Describe, Deliver, and Assess the conditions of the Operational Environment. For over 30 years, FMSO has conducted open source research on foreign perspectives of defense and security issues, emphasizing those topics that are understudied or unconsidered.

Operational Environment Watch provides translated selections and commentary from a diverse range of foreign media that our analysts and expert contributors believe will give security professionals an added dimension to their critical thinking about the Operational Environment.

The views expressed in each article are those of the author and do not represent the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the US Government. Release of this information does not imply any commitment or intent on the part of the US Government to provide any additional information on any topic presented herein.

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Regional Analysts and Expert Contributors

Middle East, North Africa
Robert Bunker
Alma Keshavarz
Karen Kaya
Michael Rubin
Lucas Winter

Africa
Robert Feldman
Jacob Zenn
Dodge Billingsley

Latin America
Geoff Demarest
Brenda Fiegel
Zach Kelsay

_________________________

Editor-in-Chief - Tom Wilhelm
Editor - Matthew Stein
Design Editor - Lucas Winter
Mobile Design - Thomas Tolare

Asia-Pacific
Cindy Hurst
Nan Li
Spencer Shanks
Peter Wood
Jacob Zenn

Caucasus, Central and South Asia
Sudha Ramachandran
Matthew Stein
Cindy Hurst

Russia, Ukraine
Chuck Bartles
Ray Finch
Les Grau
Mica Hall
Kaitlyn Johnson
Boris Vainer
Tom Wilhelm