About a forgotten genocide:
Between 1904 and 1908, 75,000 people were exterminated in Namibia - although history seems not to remember their deaths.

David Brin on the historically unprecedented pattern of the Pax Americana. He draws the contrast a little too strongly against the British Empire, and overstates the economic “damage” to the US lots, ( Read more... )

Historian John Terraine called the American Civil War “the first modern war”: this picture of Charleston in 1865 reminds one of post-bombing WWII Germany.

On how the Middle East has always been hard:
The Middle East doesn't need a diplomatic process; it needs a revolutionary transformation of its political culture, like what we saw in Western ( Read more... )

A transcript of a radio broadcast by Colour Sergeant (as he was at the time) Bourne DCM of the defence of Rorke’s Drift.

The Obama Administration does not believe intelligence assessments that Iran has stopped its nuclear weapon program.

The murderous Assad hereditary regime is being rehabilitated.

About the principle of protection (pdf) in ( Read more... )

Damage analysis on the (pdf) battlecruiser IJS Kirishima, sunk by the USS Washington at close range off Guadacanal in 1942, whose underwater wreck has now been explored. Further details.

Study finds that Al Qaeda has killed eight times as many Muslims as non-Muslims. The study (pdf). Historian Michael Burleigh looks back on a decade of terrorism:
( Read more... )

A post about WWI and Armistice Day provokes a high quality discussion.

Why a third Lebanese War would likely be much worse than the Second. Review of a book on Hezbollah: full version here:
Unfortunately, the only equivalency that actually conforms to reality is between Hezbollah and its patron, the Islamic Republic regime in Iran. This, in turn ( Read more... )

Top Chinese general advocates space defences as “inevitable”.

Polish outrage over Russian military exercise simulating attack on Poland.

Negotiations with Iran close to collapse. Iran’s President is claiming victory. Russia and the US seem to heading towards a common policy to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons.

Slides from presentation given by ( Read more... )

On longbows. On arrowheads. On bows.

Performance tests of a Japanese WWII tank.

Wondering why victory in the Cold War is not talked about more. (The 20th anniversary of the 1989 revolutions is coming up.)

What do you get for winning a quiz in Somalia?
The winners -- a team from Farjano district -- were given a first prize consisting of one AK- ( Read more... )

About the parallels between the anarchist surge and the jihadi surge:
From the 1920s on, the anarchist attacks began to dwindle, and by the late 1930s they were over. Why? What happened? Nobody is entirely sure - but most historians suggest a few factors. After the initial wave of state repression, civil liberties slowly advanced - undermining the ( Read more... )

The UN will be teaching Gazan school children about the Holocaust.

The wars on women in Afghanistan and Congo:
Democratizing Afghanistan would require something else, something far deeper and, frankly, more dangerous and more threatening: a revolution in intimate relations ( Read more... )

As UN day is celebrated, looking back at the 1930s and the era of the League of Nations.

About Paul Nitze and George Kennan: friends whose disagreements shaped American Cold War policy.

Reports that President Obama is pushing for radical revision of US nuclear weapons strategy ( Read more... )