Background Check – Strategy&Future

“The Anxious Dream”- à rebours? A political plan for Poland’s victory and peace in the East. Part 1

My attention was drawn towards the following poem during Easter whilst reading Professor Andrzej Nowak’s latest book, the chapter describing Poland’s dependence on the Soviet empire after World War II...

Background Check 2 weeks ago

The War for Resources: An examination of Russian geoeconomic goals in Ukraine

The geopolitics of the Russo-Ukrainian War has historical, security and ideological implications, but we shouldn’t avoid the environmental factor of this war...

Background Check 1 month ago

What Does Russia have left to Attack Poland during the Invasion of Ukraine?

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has predictably fixed a substantial proportion of the Russian Armed Forces...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 months ago

“Denuclearisation” as a Russian strategic goal in the Russo-Ukrainian War

In addition to Putin’s two declared goals in Ukraine, “denazification” and “demilitarisation,” we should think about adding a third, which is to deprive the country of access to any source of traditional energy like coal, hydro, thermal, or nuclear power stations, most of which are stationed in Eastern and Central Ukraine...

Background Check 2 months ago

Mackinder’s Nightmare, and Three Weeks that Shook the World

On the night of February 23rd to 24th, 2022, everything seemed to be going as Putin had planned. At the same time, the course of events was the nightmare of Halford Mackinder’s worst dreams...

Background Check 2 months ago

Ukraine Fighting Against a Terrorist State – Russia. Could the War in Ukraine be the beginning of the Demise of an Empire?

Ukraine is resisting Russian aggression. Ukraine and the Ukrainian people have lost their territories, infrastructure, military material but it still holds its soul, pride, and zealously resists...

Background Check 3 months ago

Future Warfare: The Dehumanisation of C2 – Part 4 of 4

Autonomous systems are a dangerous element of future warfare. Especially taking into account the prospect of so-called Lethal Autonomous Weapons (LAWs), controlled by machine learning and AI...

Background Check 3 months ago

The Geopolitical Drama of Eastern Europe. Could Eastern Europe once again be partitioned? Part 2 of 2

The main take-away points from the events in Belarus from the summer of 2020 (the unrest of the pro-Western factions of Belarusian civil society) until the current refugee crisis on the Belarusian border with the EU are the following...

Background Check 3 months ago

The Geopolitical Drama of Eastern Europe. Could Eastern Europe once again be partitioned? Part 1 of 2

The current crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border suggests that Eastern Europe won’t see peace and stability in this decade. The Ukrainian crisis together with the Belarussian crisis gives enough evidence that processes are occurring within the region that can affect the entire European continent, much more than was the case in 2014...

Background Check 4 months ago

Future Warfare: The Dehumanisation of C2 – Part 3 of 4. DARPA’s Mosaic Warfare and the role of AI and Robotics

What’s brewing In the United States is not exclusively only one concept of future warfare based around JADC2, but something more sophisticated and sometimes even more controversial...

Background Check, Uncategorized 4 months ago

Future Warfare: The Dehumanisation of C2 – Part 2 of 4

The speed and manoeuvrability of combat with the use of robotic systems is increasing so quickly that for humans it will soon be difficult to compete with autonomous robotic systems...

Background Check 4 months ago

How Ukraine Lost its Nuclear Power Status – Part 2 of 2. The Budapest Memorandum and Ukraine

On 5th December 1994, the three depository states of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) that entered into force on 5th March 1970 - Russia, UK, and the US - pledged to provide security assurances to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine...

Background Check 4 months ago

Future Warfare: The Dehumanisation of C2 – Part 1 of 4

It is possible to predict that the system of Command and Control in the armies of the future will be based upon intertwined cooperation or assistance of AI/ML. The consequences of this cooperation have geopolitical and directly-military aftermaths...

Background Check 4 months ago

Russian Mobilization in the Twenty-First Century

Since the publication of my guide calculating how many battalion tactical groups (BTGs) the Russian Armed Forces could generate against Poland, a couple critiques have been levelled at whether this is the best way to understand how Russia would fight Poland and/or NATO at large...

ANW, Background Check 5 months ago

Calculating Russian Force Projection Capability

The Russian Armed Forces implemented many reforms after the 2008 Georgian War, consolidating military districts, streamlining command-and-control structure, and switching from a division- to a brigade-centric order of battle...

Background Check 5 months ago

How Ukraine Lost its Nuclear Power Status – Part 1 of 2

The Russian aggression against Ukraine since 2014 has reanimated in Ukraine the political and intellectual discussion over Ukraine’s restoration of nuclear power status. This initiative was immediately integrated into the informational war against Russia by the Ukrainian political establishment...

Background Check 5 months ago

The Battle of Cudnów (1660): The Russo-Ukrainian Historiographic Assessment

For the Russians, a military tragedy, a catastrophe; for the Poles, a strategic victory; for the Ukrainians, a human and civil tragedy...

Background Check 5 months ago

Jarosław Kaczyński on war

It is very puzzling, the calmness with which public opinion received the statements of the most important politician in the country on the real possibility of a war with Russia (and Belarus)...

ANW, Background Check 7 months ago

Forced March on Poti and Senaki: Russian Spetsnaz Operation in Georgia in 2008. Part 2

Shamanov in his interview does not mention the role of the 45th Guards Spetsnaz Brigade during the war on the Abkhazian front. However, many sources indicate that the 45th Guards Spetsnaz Brigade undertook the most dangerous operations during the war in the Abkhazian TVD...

Background Check 7 months ago

Forced March on Poti and Senaki: Russian Spetsnaz Operation in Georgia in 2008. Part 1

The Russo-Georgian War in 2008 was not a challenge for the Georgian Armed Forces exclusively, but also for Russia. In fact, the consequences of the war triggered the process of the modernisation of the Russian Armed Forces...

Background Check 7 months ago

New Generation Warfare and Civilian Leadership in the Process of Military Reforms. Part 3: The Serdyukov Reforms

The Russian Armed Forces has witnessed a lot in its history, but they have never had a situation when the chief person in the Armed Forces was an accountant...

Background Check, Uncategorized 8 months ago

The Conceptual Trap of War as a Ballet

Enshrined in doctrine, operational phasing dominates U.S. and NATO thinking on operational art...

Background Check 8 months ago

New Generation Warfare and Civilian Leadership in the Process of Military Reforms. Part 2: McNamara’s Managerial Revolution

Considered the biggest reformer of the Pentagon, Robert McNamara was able to consolidate civilian political control over the military leadership and the defence budget...

Background Check 8 months ago

The Last 21 Years: Year (2)019

Following Mike Pence’s 2018 Hudson Institute speech, the wider narrative around China began to change — just as it started to become clear how much of China’s wealth had been ploughed back into infrastructure and the military...

Background Check, Uncategorized 8 months ago

New Generation Warfare and Civilian Leadership in the Process of Military Reforms. Part 1: The Cardwell Reforms

The New Generation Warfare (NGW) revolution is not only exclusively about warfare but is about the comprehensive revolution inside the entire military realm and in the supplementary sectors...

Background Check, Uncategorized 8 months ago

Afghanistan: Consequences for World History

Let us abstract away from what is happening now in the world and concentrate on the historical importance of the events in Afghanistan. What follows here is my humble attempt to forecast the near future which is already just over the horizon...

Background Check 9 months ago

Two Battlegrounds of the Great Game in Eurasia: the South China Sea and the Black Sea. Part 1 of 3

The Great Game of the XXI century is not only about Afghanistan anymore. This time, it is about a struggle by the Land Powers to bite into the World Ocean and to undermine the West’s monopoly over it and the Freedom of Navigation concept...

Background Check 9 months ago

The New Regional Geopolitical Equilibrium in the Southern Caucasus

The Southern Caucasus is one of the most dangerous hotspots on the Eurasian continent. For centuries, the region has attracted regional and global players. Its small nations exist constantly under the pressure of three crucial Eurasian powers: Russia, Turkey and Iran...

Background Check 10 months ago

Poland’s Anchoring Strategy and the Case for a Rethink

In the 21st century, the balance of power in Eurasia is structurally different than it was in the last two hundred years, when the mental maps of our elites were taking shape...

Background Check 10 months ago

Geopolitical Drivers of China and Russia towards Taiwan and Crimea. Part 2

In March 1965, Mao reportedly told the member of a Palestinian delegation: “Imperialism is afraid of China and the Arabs. Israel and Formosa are bases of imperialism in Asia. You are the front gate of the great continent, and we are the rear. They created Israel for you, and Formosa for us"...

Background Check 10 months ago

Geopolitical Drivers of China and Russia towards Taiwan and Crimea. Part 1

Taiwan and Crimea have many interesting similarities both in terms of their geopolitical and geostrategic importance and in terms of historic and cultural narratives for China and Russia. It seems that the leaders of both countries are committed to the idea of “collecting lost lands”...

Background Check 11 months ago

Drone Guerilla Warfare in the Middle East: Part 5 of 5

In the near future nobody is going to establish international rules for the different types of UAVs. The proliferation of drone technologies and their decreasing prices on the global market are going to continue...

Background Check 11 months ago

War Vs Peace Unit Update Report #10. May 2021

War Vs Peace Unit Update Report #10

Background Check 11 months ago

Drone Guerilla Warfare in the Middle East: Part 4 of 5

Since the development of drone warfare, defence against the attacks and surveillance of different types of UAVs have been included as a component of A2/AD strategies...

Background Check 11 months ago

War Vs Peace Missile Report #64. May 2021

Background Check 11 months ago

The Drone Eats With Me by Atef Abu Saif (Book Review)

It seems Israel will never leave Gaza. It is always here, even if its soldiers are not visible, patrolling the streets as they did not so long ago. The occupation is now truly twenty-first century—the best drone technology in the world...

Background Check 11 months ago

Drone Guerilla Warfare in the Middle East: Part 3 of 5

Israel has responded to the activities of the militants in Lebanon and Palestine by developing a genuinely sophisticated system of UCAVs which encompass strategic, medium-size and tactical drones...

Background Check 11 months ago

Drone Guerilla Warfare in the Middle East: Part 2 of 5

It has become popular to refer to Turkey as the main drone “superpower” in the region, but it would be a grave mistake to think that in the Middle East only Israel and Turkey have developed sophisticated UAV industries...

Background Check 11 months ago

Drone Guerilla Warfare in the Middle East: Part 1 of 5

Rapidly developing both in theory and in practice, drone warfare will in the near future likely define and shape the nature of war...

Background Check, Uncategorized 12 months ago

“Gente Polonus natione Europae?” – the voice of one of the subscribers. Part 2

Europe is part of "Western civilisation", to which, apart from Europe itself, it is customary to include all its (regrettably, usually evolved as a result of rape) "children": primarily North America, with the United States as a global power, and Latin America, with Brazil growing in importance in the global puzzle, as well as the area of Australia and Oceania...

Background Check 12 months ago

Poland on the Black Sea

“Poland from sea to sea” (Polska od morza do morza). This slogan is most often associated with the 16th century and the period of the greatest power of the Polish Republic...

Background Check 12 months ago

Turkish Media and the Turkish Expert Community’s reaction to the Polish-Turkish Drone Deal

Poland has joined the list of countries that are going to operate the Turkish Bayraktar UAVs. In the near future, Turkish drones are going to fly in the skies of Poland and the Baltic countries along with the other countries...

Background Check, Uncategorized 12 months ago

The Ukrainian-Russian War: An Assessment of Risks, Scenarios and Theatres of War. Part 5 of 5

The experiences of previous Russian-Ukrainian confrontations shows that the easiest task for Moscow was to take control over Kharkov and Sloboda Ukraine...

Background Check 12 months ago

War Vs Peace Unit Update Report #9. April 2021

Background Check 12 months ago

“Gente Polonus natione Europae?” – the voice of one of the subscribers. Part 1

This essay is not strictly geopolitical in nature, but the cultural issues raised in it, in the field of comparative studies of civilisation, are naturally related to geopolitics...

Background Check 12 months ago

Jack London’s “The Iron Heel” (Book review)

The Iron Heel is a dystopian novel by American writer Jack London. Published in 1908, it sets out to warn that a dangerous new society is rising on the horizon...

Background Check 12 months ago

The Ukrainian-Russian War: An Assessment of Risks, Scenarios and Theatres of War. Part 4 of 5

Theatre of War “C” – the Northern Tavrida ‘Peninsula’ - from a geopolitical perspective, this theatre is given by the geopolitical divine to be occupied if the Crimean Peninsula is already under control...

Background Check 12 months ago

War Vs Peace Missile Report #63. April 2021

Background Check 12 months ago

The Last 21 Years: Year (2)018

10 years after the Beijing Olympics had showcased the awakening of Napoleon’s “sleeping giant”, 2018 was the year that America signalled - finally (?) - that it would now be taking a much tougher approach...

Background Check 12 months ago

The Ukrainian-Russian War: An Assessment of Risks, Scenarios and Theatres of War. Part 3 of 5

Scenario Five - this scenario is closer to the second scenario or even to the first one, but in this scenario, Russia imposes its entire technological superiority and destroys the main concentrations of Ukrainian military equipment, material and navy...

Background Check 1 year ago

A Polish perspective on the strategic choices facing America. Part 2

W wymiarze wojskowym wycofanie się Amerykanów na zachodnią półkulę w ramach offshore balancing oznaczałoby redukcję w amerykańskim arsenale nuklearnym z jednoczesnym rozwojem tarczy antyrakietowej...

Background Check 1 year ago

The Ukrainian-Russian War: An Assessment of Risks, Scenarios and Theatres of War. Part 2 of 5

Scenario Two - here the strategic goals are much greater and the effects in case of its realisation would not be simply political or diplomatic...

Background Check 1 year ago

A Polish perspective on the strategic choices facing America. Part 1

Any effective strategy (for a country in Poland’s position) requires an understanding of one’s own limitations, both related to the foundations of one’s own power and to the existing obligations of a superpower...

Background Check 1 year ago

The Ukrainian-Russian War: An Assessment of Risks, Scenarios and Theatres of War. Part 1 of 5

2021 will be the anniversary of Ukrainian independence and 30 years since the fall of the Soviet Union.,,

Background Check 1 year ago

Adapt or Die. Obsolescence, Offset Strategies and the Pacific

“We’re a maritime nation – we’ve grown by the sea and live by it; if we lose command of it we starve” – this is what the English used to say. The Americans still say it today. So it is no coincidence that the US Navy is the pride of the American armed forces - nor is it a coincidence that aircraft carriers are the pride of the US Navy, a symbol of its power and the United States.

Background Check 1 year ago

“Free Odessa – Odessa Republic – Southwest Territory (1917-1919)” by Victor Savchenko (Book review)

Geopolitics has different expressions, usually global or regional, but sometimes it can be interesting to understand the phenomenon of geopolitics through the local angle. Victor Savchenko’s book which I present today is truly one of those books that give us a picture of how geopolitics works at the local level...

Background Check 1 year ago

The Last 21 Years: Year (2)017

In the last seven years of the Obama Presidency (2010-2016), the Dow Jones had risen from 11,500 to 19,500, an average of just over 1,000 points every year...

Background Check 1 year ago

The Arc of Instability from Eastern Europe to the Southern Caucasus. What’s next? Part 2

TIn autumn, the situation in the region deteriorated. On September 27th, the month and a half long Nagorno-Karabakh War began. The geopolitical consequences of the war were detrimental for Armenia, and have not been settled so far. The country fell totally under the control of Moscow, hence increasing Russian military presence in the Southern Caucasus.

Background Check 1 year ago

War Vs Peace Unit Update Report #8

Background Check, Uncategorized 1 year ago

War Vs Peace Missile Report #62

War Vs Peace Missile Report #62 March 2021

Background Check, Uncategorized 1 year ago

The Arc of Instability from Eastern Europe to the Southern Caucasus. What’s next? Part 1

The second half of 2020 will be considered by many historians and experts as an important historical period that determined the development of the political and geopolitical situation in two crucial regions of Europe, Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus...

Background Check 1 year ago

Special Operations Forces Command and Crimean Operation

In 2013 Russia’s Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov jointly announced the creation of a Special Operations Forces...

Background Check 1 year ago

The Last 21 Years: Year (2)016

Some years are more memorable than others: the terror attacks of 2001, the Iraq invasion of 2003, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the birth of the smartphone era in 2007, the financial crisis of 2008, the ‘Arab Spring’ in 2011, the annexation of Crimea and the war in the Donbas in 2014. And although we might not have thought so at first, 2016 would turn out to be another “one of those years”!

Background Check, Uncategorized 1 year ago

War Vs Peace Missile Report #61

Background Check 1 year ago

The Last 21 Years: Year (2)015

2015 was the year of the European Migrant Crisis, when makeshift refugee camps in Greek Islands off the coast of Turkey began filling up with families (and young men) fleeing the ongoing Syrian Civil War...

Background Check, Uncategorized 1 year ago

A perfect storm over Taiwan

In February, at a panel organized by the National University of Singapore, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd expressed his conviction that the next decade of Sino-American relations will be marked by "living on the edge." Rudd's idée fixe is that China and the United States develop "barriers", allowing both powers to continue their inevitable rivalry while reducing the risk of a kinetic conflict between them...

Background Check 1 year ago

Why?

I have had the intention of writing these few sentences for some time, watching the debate around the rapidly changing international scene and the accompanying public debate in Poland and abroad. But let me start with a series of questions?

Background Check 1 year ago

The Last 21 Years: Year (2)014

The Euromaidan protests in Kyiv started on 21st November 2013 after President Viktor Yanukovich announced Ukraine’s suspension of an association agreement with the EU, meaning the East European country would instead seek closer ties with Moscow. This was a post-colour revolution...

Background Check 1 year ago

Australia’s role in America’s war with China. Part 1

In the US plans for a war with China, Australia plays the role of a base for peripheral operations in the Indian Ocean and in the Indonesian straits...

Background Check, S&F Hero 1 year ago

The Last 21 Years: 2013

Barack Obama’s (second) inauguration speech on 21st January 2013 contained this rather hopeful line: “A decade of war is now ending”...

Background Check 1 year ago

Jacek Bartosiak and Nicholas Myers discuss Mackinder, Kennan and Spykman theories in the 21st century (Video)

Audio & Video, Background Check 1 year ago

Eugen Richter „Pictures of the Socialistic Future” (Book review)

The history of the future (futurology), the philosophy of history, geopolitics and astropolitics are the most interesting fields of human knowledge...

Background Check 1 year ago

The Last 21 Years: (2)012

Background Check 1 year ago

The Last 21 Years: (2)011

We have to be careful about the terms we use to describe events. As Tim Marshall argued in the Spectator in October 2012, “calling these events the ‘Arab Spring’ automatically frames them as positive”...

Background Check 1 year ago

Jacek Bartosiak, Marek Budzisz, Albert Świdziński talk to Mike Winnerstig on the Sweden’s grand strategy (Video)

Audio & Video, Background Check 1 year ago

Yevgeny Zamyatin “We” (Book review)

The first anti-utopia was written in 1920 in the Soviet Russia by Evgeni Zamyatin. In Russia, the novel was published only in 1988, and the reaction in Soviet Russia in the 20s was outrage, forcing Zamyatin to leave the country...

Background Check 1 year ago

The Role of Egypt in the Russian Strategic Vision

Egypt in the Russian agenda plays the most important role for the Middle East and Africa, and the cooperation seems to be increasing in 2021...

Background Check 1 year ago

The Last 21 Years: (2)010

On 4th January 2010, the Burj Khalifa opened in Dubai. At 828 metres, it was the world’s tallest building...

Background Check 1 year ago

Jacek Bartosiak, Nicholas Myers and Zbigniew Pisarski talk about Poland in Great Power Competition (Video)

Audio & Video, Audio & Video, Audio & Video, Background Check, Background Check 1 year ago

Jacek Bartosiak, Ridvan Bari Urcosta and Gustav Gressel talk about the Germany’s foreign policy (Video)

Jacek Bartosiak, Ridvan Bari Urcosta and Gustaw Gressler talk about the Germany's foreign policy.

Audio & Video, Background Check, Uncategorized 1 year ago

The Last 21 Years: Year (2)009

The phrase “up in the air” perfectly captures the world at the beginning of 2009 (and, arguably, ever since)...

Background Check, Uncategorized 1 year ago

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky “Adventures of the Atom”. Book review

Konstantin Eduardovich was not only a genius astrophysicist and rocket scientist, but also created a cosmic philosophy which he presented in his many different articles, essays and novels...

Background Check 1 year ago

The Last 21 Years: Year (2)008

“The numbers tell us this was a debate between change and experience, and change won”...

Background Check 1 year ago

Strategic flows (Video)

Audio & Video, Audio & Video, Background Check, Background Check 1 year ago

Ukraine’s Search for security: from NATO and PESCO to bipartisan relations with independent players (the US, the UK, Turkey). Part 2

London introduced a comprehensive post-Brexit strategy towards Ukraine and now it has several components...

Background Check 1 year ago

Jacek Bartosiak, Scott LaFoy and Nicholas Myers debate the missile warfare (Video)

Audio & Video, Background Check 1 year ago

British-Ukrainian military cooperation as a part of London’s Post-Brexit Strategy. Part 2

However, what were truly revolutionary and historic were the documents signed recently between London and Kiev. The Political, Free Trade and Strategic Partnership Agreement signed on 8th October 2020 in London during the official visit of the Ukrainian President to the UK...

Background Check, Uncategorized 1 year ago

The Last 21 Years: Year (2)007

“Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.” Normally we might be inclined to ignore Steve Jobs’ sales patter but here, on 9th January 2007 unveiling the first-generation Apple iPhone, he was - as they say - on point...

Background Check 1 year ago

British-Ukrainian military cooperation as a part of London’s Post-Brexit Strategy. Part 1

The United Kingdom is approaching the final stage of Brexit. London is thinking about the post-Brexit period of its history and is searching for a new post-Brexit grand strategy...

Background Check 1 year ago

Report from the “Twentieth War” S&F. Part 1

This is actually not a report yet, but rather an account of what we have already done and indeed where we are going...

Background Check, S&F Hero 1 year ago

Ukraine’s Search for security: from NATO and PESCO to bipartisan relations with independent players (the US, the UK, Turkey). Part 1

The main geopolitical imperative of Ukraine is to find a way to maintain its social and political resilience together with the territorial integrity of the country...

Background Check 1 year ago

The Last 21 Years: Year (2)006

In the 31st January 1907 edition of Le Matin, under the headline Paris-Pékin Automobile: Un défi prodigieux, there was a really remarkable story which looked set to define what we now think of as the first era of globalisation...

Background Check 1 year ago

Ridvan Bari Urcosta and Marek Budzisz talk to Admiral (ret.) Ihor Kabanenko on Ukrainian Naval Strategy and the balance of power in the Black Sea Region

Audio & Video, Background Check 1 year ago

Michail Leontiev. “The Great Game (Great Britain against Russia and the USSR)”. Book review

This book was written in 2008 by one of the staunch supporters of Vladimir Putin’s regime. Mikhail Leontiev was born in Moscow in 1958 and for many years was involved in Russian politics, more specifically in Russian media space...

Background Check 1 year ago

The Last 21 Years: Year (2)005

Opened in December 2005, the Donghai Bridge — connecting mainland Shanghai with a new deepwater container port on the islands of Yangshan in Hangzhou Bay 32.5km away — was not the world’s longest cross-water bridge...

Background Check 1 year ago

The Last 21 Years: Year (2)004

Taipei 101 — named after its 101 floors — opened on 31st December 2004, having earlier in the year been recognised as the world’s tallest skyscraper at 509.2 m (spire), 449.2 m (roof height). Under President Chen Shui-bian of the nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who was re-elected in March 2004 after a four-year term, the Republic of China (Taiwan) had begun to distance itself from the PRC...

Background Check 1 year ago

Jacek Bartosiak talks to Peter Zeihan on the chaotic times that are coming, on decoupling and deglobalization

Audio & Video, Background Check 1 year ago

Jacek Bartosiak, Ridvan Bari Urcosta and Marek Budzisz talk to Andrey Kortunov on the shift in the global order (Podcast)

Audio & Video, Background Check 1 year ago

The Last 21 Years: Year (2)003

In Baghdad, the capital city, you will see street merchants selling exactly the same kind of pottery that their ancestors sold at the time of the Arabian Nights..

Background Check 1 year ago

Artemis: the USA’s return to the Moon

The United States is planning to return to the Moon, but this time it looks more serious and aggressive than ever...

Background Check 1 year ago

The Last 21 Years: Year (2)002

2001 had been amongst the most difficult years in America’s history and the world now waited to see how it would respond...

Background Check 1 year ago

Turkish Drones Doctrine: Advance Technology that gives Advance Geopolitics

In the recent decade, the advanced UAVs technologies proliferated far beyond the traditional powers - Israel, the U.S. and West, at large - that dominated this technological field...

Background Check 1 year ago

5 Truths About Special Forces

Background Check 2 years ago

The Last 21 Years: Year (2)001

On 21st June 2001, a train set off from Yandi in the arid upland interior of Western Australia to the Port of Port Hedland 275 km away on the Indian Ocean...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Beyond the Post-Cold War Era

Between 1989 and 1991, the strategic map of Eurasia altered dramatically as broad swathes of territory reopened to international markets after a long period of enclosure behind communist walls...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

The Last 21 Years: Year (2)000

The 21st century didn’t begin officially until 1st Jan 2001 but in the popular imagination, 2000 represented a new beginning: a new century, a new millennium. The collapse of the Soviet Union was now an increasingly distant point in the rear-view mirror...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

“Our Middle East. Notes of the Soviet Ambassador to Egypt and Iran” by Vladimir Mikhailovich Vinogradov

The book which I would like to present has historical importance for those who are interested in the revolutionary events in Iran between the three historical periods of this ancient country...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

The Theaters of Greco-Turkish War: a geostrategic projection. Part V

During the Cold War, Washington needed these two countries in order to contain the Soviets’ drive in the south, but since the end of the Cold War and the elimination of the “Russian threat”, all that’s left is the direct territorial, religious and military contradictions between Greece and Turkey...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Strategic Assessment of Drones Warfare in the Nagorno-Karabakh

It is not a sci-fi movie anymore: the war of the drone is reality and it is happening now...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

The Theaters of Greco-Turkish War: a geostrategic projection. Part IV

The Military Balance 2020 provides the following information regarding the military forces of Turkey and Greece. In 2019, Turkey possessed the biggest army in Europe with 355,200 active military personnel and 378,700 reserves...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

The Theaters of Greco-Turkish War: a geostrategic projection. Part III

The Cilicia war theater existed during the Franco-Turkish War (1918-1921). In Turkish military historiography, it is known as the “southern front.”

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

The Theaters of Greco-Turkish War: a geostrategic projection. Part II

The Megisti (Kastellorizo) theater of operation is the most interesting and the most attractive island to Turkey...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

The Theaters of Greco-Turkish War: a geostrategic projection. Part I

Turkey is changing its geopolitical posture in the region and her strategy is omnidirectional. For the last five years, Turkey has been very busy with the military conflicts in Syria and Iraq, but the situation is slowly evolving into one that is stable and manageable for Turkey...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Strategy&Future – „Project 2030″

Strategy&Future is launching a foresight analysis titled "Project 2030" concerning prospective security crises that would bear on Poland's security...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Romania: Poland’s natural, underestimated ally

„ [..] And the Pole must stay on this land, so that Polish tears and Polish blood will not be wasted, because this land is poured with Polish blood to defend it…”

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Quo vadis SOF?

The September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center changed the course of history. It began a global war on terrorism, which shook new life into Special Forces and redefined their character...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Makhmut Gareev “My last war (Afghanistan without Soviet troops)”

This book sheds light on the Soviet Union’s strategic convulsions in Afghanistan when the country almost collapsed but still by inertia was trying to behave as a Superpower with geopolitical commitments.

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Geostrategic Assessment of The Greco-Turkish Wars: Projection of the Future War. Part I

The dramatic relations between Greece and Turkey are rooted in history, religion, ideology and ultimately geopolitics. The Russian-Turkish Wars in the XVIII and XIX centuries tremendously weakened the Ottoman Empire...

Background Check 2 years ago

BELARUS THE BELLIGERENT

On August 9, Belarus held it’s 6th presidential election. Shockingly – shockingly! – according to official estimates and exit polls, this was yet another resounding victory by the country's long-standing strongman leader, Alexander Lukashenka.

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 19-26.08.2020

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Russell Grenfell’s Sea Power (1940)

In the far southwestern corner of England, overlooking the blue Atlantic and the green rolling hills of Penwith, there is a village of tiny grey stone cottages...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Turkey’s New Global Posture: Grand Strategy and Geopolitical Imperatives. Part III

We’ve seen changes in U.S. foreign policy - the geopolitical pivot to the Pacific - and the U.S. needs someone who is able to keep an eye on the Greater Middle East through an American lens...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 12-18.08.2020

“If you destroy the country’s first President, this will be the beginning of the end - you will always be on your knees.” Alexander Lukashenko still seeks to frame himself as a guarantor of national independence and sovereignty...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Turkey and Greece: Escalation in the Aegean

The Baltic-Eastern Mediterranean zone which divides the European peninsula from the rest of Eurasia is becoming dangerously unstable. Last week there were reports that the row between Ankara and Athens had evolved into a more aggressive stage...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Understanding Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s “The Social Contract” and other essays in XXI century

Rousseau’s philosophy is mainly interpreted in two ways: firstly (and most commonly) through the concept of Romanticism, merging his ideas with his extraordinary personality...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Turkey’s New Global Posture: Grand Strategy and Geopolitical Imperatives. Part II

Turkish plans for the creation of energy independence are based upon three main pillars with the use of critical sources of power...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 05-11.08.2020

On August 10, the election commission updated the preliminary data on the results of voting in the presidential elections in Belarus...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Ahead of the New Frontier. Part III. The Mare Liberum (Freedom of the Seas) from Sea to Space

The main feature of the Anglo-Saxon world is global dominance and its customary law and institutions that they dominate over the World Ocean...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 29.07-04.08.2020

The political situation in Belarus is increasingly volatile, and the election process is developing in an increasingly unpredictable fashion...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Turkey’s New Global Posture: Grand Strategy and Geopolitical Imperatives. Part I

None of the geopolitical actors in Eurasia and beyond were ready for Turkey to come up with such ambitions and with such an omnidirectional grand strategy encompassing the whole of West Eurasia...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 22-28.07.2020

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Britain’s China strategy dilemma

In the wild and wary aftermath of the Brexit revolution, many simply assumed that the UK would lose influence in the rest of the world...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Ahead of the New Frontier: from Naval Warfare Theory to Space Strategy. Part II: The Geopolitical Principles and Imperatives for a future war in Outer Space

The Persian Gulf War marked a turning point in human history in the XX century because, in some respect, it ended the Cold War. Moreover, it introduced space power as an element of contemporary warfare...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Ahead of the New Frontier: from Naval Warfare Theory to Space Strategy. Part I

The canon of the strategic theory is full of interesting and unique concepts that were introduced many years earlier than they were implemented in the operational models of modern warfare. However, since it first emerged as an independent field of scientific discussion, its most difficult challenge might be to develop strategic theoretical patterns and concepts for the future wars in Outer Space.

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 14-21.07.2020

The main features of this week are that people started to respond to violence by violence; an oppositional coalition was created; and that Lukashenka allegedly was hospitalized, but it wasn’t true...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

On the necessity to include climate considerations in long-term security and strategy planning

Regardless of whether the ongoing changes in the world’s climate are man-induced, the reality of their occurrence is a fact...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 07-14.07.2020

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 01.07-07.07.2020

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 23-30.06.2020

The situation in Belarus is not as desperate as it appeared last week because both sides are now at the stage of preparations for the final struggle...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Hannah Arendt “On Revolution”. Book review

Hannah Arendt is quite a popular theoretician in universities of the West, well known for her development of the theory of Totalitarianism. Her intellectual interests were based upon the main problems of the XX century...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 17-23.06.2020

The political situation in Belarus is changing dramatically and dynamic events are underway, therefore it is worth undertaking a more detailed analysis of the situation in the country...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Fort Trump featuring the rest of the World

Back in 2018, the idea of Fort Trump was floated by the Polish President Andrzej Duda, with the implicit hope of making the presence of US assets permanent...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

The Revolution in the Drone Warfare: the lessons from the Idlib De-Escalation Zone. Part II

In the case of Libya, Turkey is achieving its geopolitical goals astonishingly successfully, in the same way as in Syria. The presence of drones does not resemble the presence of military forces...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 9-16.06.2020

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

The Revolution in the Drone Warfare: the lessons from the Idlib De-Escalation Zone. Part I

Turkey and Russia are the two countries that are now learning how to operationally use a new type of the XXI century warfare, Drone (UAV) Warfare...

Background Check 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 02-09.06.2020

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Democracy versus Meritocracy

When Alfred T. Mahan was prophesying the rise of China back in 1897, he talked about modern European civilisation having grown up “under the shadow of the Cross”...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 28.05-02.06.2020

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Multi Domain Battle

The goal of Americans in the coming years will be to maintain the ability to project power in all areas in which China and Russia - in the face of the current world system - are trying to push back against the interests of the US...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 20-27.05.2020

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

China-American Informational “Biological” Warfare: From “Yellow Peril” to “Chinese Virus”. Part 2

The globe is facing an unprecedented challenge which has its own name “COVID-19” and which definitely emanates a direct threat to humanity as a biological factor...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 13-20.05.2020

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

China-American Informational “Biological” Warfare: From “Yellow Peril” to “Chinese Virus”. Part 1

The globe is facing an unprecedented challenge which has its own name “COVID-19” and which definitely emanates a direct threat to humanity as a biological factor...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 6-12.05.2020

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

As oil prices fall, US-Saudi relations continue to sour

The US is planning to “fundamentally, not only reevaluate, but take actions that will start to undermine the long term relationship” with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Brothers Karamazov as a geopolitical novel

The River Polist has its source at Lake Polisto in the western part of the Valdai Hills (about 400 km east of Riga). It becomes navigable at Staraya Russa...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 29.04-05.05.2020

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Ukraine’s postmodern Presidency and the strategic importance of “nation branding”

Perhaps it’s to do with owning and operating the biggest airplane in the world; perhaps it’s to do with the self-deprecating actor-turned-President...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 22-29.04.2020

Eastern Europe is gradually and very carefully returning to normal life. COVID-19 is still the most important issue in all countries of the region. Many are planning to coordinate the process of reopening borders. However, many other interesting events have occurred...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Chaos and Control on the Eurasian Steppe

To really comprehend the vastness of the Eurasian steppe and the ways of the societies that have long inhabited it, we need to think in terms of the cultural importance of horsemanship...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 16-22.04.2020

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

From Lisbon to Vladivostok via Tiraspol

I believe that what [the Russians] want to do is maintain situations of strategic geographic instability on their flanks, to their benefit …

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Arthur Herman. “1917. Lenin, Wilson and the Birth of the New World Disorder”. Book review

Arthur L. Herman (1956) is an American historian and senior fellow at the Hundson Institute. This book is his latest piece published in 2017.

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Florence and the Machine Age

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. - Psalm 23, Line 4

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 09-15.04.2020

The peoples and nations of Central and Eastern Europe are learning to live in the new conditions with Covid-19 pandemia spreading. Getting used to a new way of life is happening now. The way everything is going to end up is still uncertain.

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Chess and Geopolitics

Typically I find that those who like to view the world through a prism of the unevenness of geography have very little time for chess, with its flat board and what game theorists and economists might call its “perfect information”...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 01-08.04.2020

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 25.03-01.04.2020

Everywhere is the same now - people are isolated without any idea what lies in store for them next. The future will depend on how deep the medical crisis (evolving gradually into a social and an economic crisis) turns out to be...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

A stay-at-home parent’s attempt to understand the world in 2020

The “invisible enemy” is forcing us to engage differently with the world: as producers, as consumers, as believers and non-believers, as friends, as family...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 18-25.03.2020

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

The painful reality of strategic flows, and a history lesson

The current epidemiological situation shows the tangible reality of the impact the flow of people and goods makes on our lives...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

An Eschatology of the Coronavirus: The New “Brave” World Ahead of Us All

There is now a need to find, if possible, some model which can explain to the billions of people around the world where we are, where we’re headed and what kind social and political order might emerge from the ashes of the current crisis...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 11-18.03.2020

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Half a year which may prove crucial for Ukraine’s integration with NATO

The Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at a recent press conference - one of the first after the forming of the new government - said that Ukraine is entering a global economic crisis.

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

The Nuclear Taboo

For most of the 45 years of the Cold War, as a rule, there was a bipolar system and bipolar nuclear rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 02-07.03.2020

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Russians on the revision of the Piłsudski-Giedroyc doctrine, or the renewed Polish imperialism

Experts of Russian Regnum Agency has been recently debating the issue of Polish-Russian competition for influence in Central & Eastern Europe, in particular in the "buffer zone" countries separating Poland and Russia, namely Belarus and Ukraine.

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

The nature of the Eastern Question for Russia in the XXI century

Relations between Turkey and Russia have typically been the most dramatic between any two nations in European history. They have an omnidimensional nature and at the same time they are almost never peaceful.

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Davor Marijan “STORM” (2010)

In terms of military strategy and theory of warfare on the European continent, the post-Cold War period has had one specific feature. Namely, it has typically been a fight between unequal forces...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Crimea is facing water shortages: the geopolitical angle

In Crimea, people together with Orthodox priests are praying for rains and snow because throughout the last six months there was no rain during autumn, winter has been dry, and the reservoirs are almost empty. Journalists are forecasting apocalyptic scenarios for Crimea, including drought. In Simferopol, the authorities are gradually introducing a regime of limited water supply.

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 24-29.02.2020

There is a great deal of popular anxiety throughout the countries of the Intermarium concerning the threat of the Coronavirus, which seems to be gradually encircling and surrounding the region...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

The Concert of Powers at the Opera House in Lviv

The concept of a "New Concert of Great Powers" is increasingly cited as an analogy to the nineteenth-century balance of powers, which was established to “ensure security and peace” in Europe after the conflagration of the Napoleonic wars. Now, none of the nations of Europe is strong enough to be able to play first violin in the potential new concert of powers - should such emerge...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 17-23.02.2020

The head of the Duma Committee on Defense, Vladimir Shamanov, said that Russia would conduct operational measures in response to the next large-scale NATO exercises near the borders of the Russian Federation...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

The Polish Strategic View of Belarus

The dissolution of the Soviet Union left Russia with a strategic problem. For centuries, Russian national security had depended on a buffer that would serve to increase the difficulty of invading Russia. After the collapse, this buffer dissolved into its historicalnations – the Baltics, Belarus and Ukraine.

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 10-16.02.2020

In our opening statement, that we have published last summer, we articulated our desire to share with our subscribers the Central & Eastern European (aka Intermarium) perspective on world affairs

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Igor Zagrebelny „Międzymorze. Szansa prawie utracona”. Book review

This is the first major attempt in Ukraine since the events of 2014 to address the phenomenon of the Intermarium. It undertakes a deep intellectual reflection about the place of Ukraine in this developing geopolitical project.

Background Check 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 01-07.02.2020

Last week brought a slew of diplomatic activity in the Eastern Europe. Mike Pompeo visited in Minsk and while there promised to cover all of Belarus’ oil demand. In Ukraine, Turkish President Recep Erdogan tightened Ankara’s relations with Ukraine and its new President Vladimir Zelensky against the Russian Federation as retaliation for Russian actions in Syria against rebels in Idlib...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Macron visits Poland, France revisits the old balancing game.

On Monday February 2nd, a plane carrying French President Emmanuel Macron touched down in Warsaw, marking the first time he had visited Poland since he was elected nearly three years ago.

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 27.01-02.02.2020

Pompeo travels to Kiev and Minsk; Germany and Turkey seek closer economic ties with Ukraine; Moldova slowly re-orientates itself towards the East. Minsk unexpectedly orders a comprehensive combat readiness of the Armed Forces of Belarus, and an answer to the Collective Security Treaty Organization under the leadership of Russia preparing own its exercises in Belarus.

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Belarus, the perennial borderland

Ever since Belarus emerged as a sovereign state from the chaotic period of the early 1990s, it has seldom caught the eye of western – and, lamentably, eastern – analysts...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

What Are the A2AD (Anti-Access/Area Denial) Capabilities All About?

A2/AD stands for Anti-Access/Area Denial and has become an increasingly popular term in military circles over recent years. It’s a concept that refers to the military and technological measures...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly 18-24.01.2020

In our opening statement, that we have published last summer, we articulated our desire to share with our subscribers the Central & Eastern European (aka Intermarium) perspective on world affairs

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Putin in the Near and Middle East: assessments, outcomes and consequences

The first global geopolitical events 2020 were rapid and alarming. The consequences for the entire year are still unknown. Last week, the world was occupied with the Middle East - the events were happening so fast and unpredictable, that nobody knew what would come next and many expected the worst scenarios...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

The Syrian express and a Mediterranean smoking chimney: The Russian fleet in the Mediterranean

In August 2008, Russia invaded Georgia. In its wake, the US Navy demonstrated its overwhelming land-attack capabilities in the Black Sea. It was supported by other NATO countries by sending ships through the Bosporus, which in fact frightened Russian decision-makers...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Intermarium Weekly

In the opening statement at Strategy&Future we articulated last summer the desire to share with our subscribers the Central & Eastern European aka European Intermarium perspective on world affairs, permanently influenced by the fluid balance of power in Eurasia and elsewhere in an increasingly volatile and fragile security environment that badly needs to be understood, not only by political and military leaders but also by individuals and business leaders...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Storm Brewing in the Former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, i.e. Seminal Developments in Belarus

Interesting, and perhaps slightly surprising, because China - contrary to Russia - has decided in the last phase of the unification negotiations to support Belarus's position...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Turkish Middle Eastern Strategy: Geopolitical Implications for Libya and Eastern Mediterranean

The West is witnessing a new challenger in the Middle East that does not comply itself with the traditional Western hegemony to the region that had been lasting for decades...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Russian hybrid war – what is it all about?

We often hear about the Russian hybrid war, or using a more professional term - the next generation warfare. What exactly does this mean? It's time to clearly explain to Strategy&Future readers.

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Americans have always thought in terms of geography: The Purchase of Louisiana

True, geography, or more broadly speaking, geopolitics - understood as the deployment of resources across space, using pivotal areas, points of strength and transport corridors - is not the only factor that defines the way states (and more specifically the leaders of states) behave...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Russia’s Gamble

Any position Russia takes in the Northern European Plain is not to calm the Russians...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

What Is Power Projection All About

The term "power projection", often used in the language of military, geopolitics or geostrategy, is derived from the field of operational and strategic art, and...

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Dear Reader,

In the very first article we have published I presented you with our mission statement. Back then I wrote the following words:

Background Check, Uncategorized 2 years ago

Air-Land Battle Concept

The brain behind the victorious Cold War operational Air-Land Battle Concept was General Donn A. Starry, who commanded the US Army Training and Doctrine Command between...

Background Check, Uncategorized 3 years ago

From Medyka to Rotterdam and back

They say that travel broadens the mind. Today, in the era of cheap flights, open borders and ubiquitous Internet, this saying takes on a special meaning...

Background Check, Uncategorized 3 years ago

“Tournament of shadows” by Elżbieta Cherezińska

"Sooner or later all roads lead east"...

Background Check, Uncategorized 3 years ago

The Revolution in Military Affairs and the Soviet reconnaissance-strike complex

In recent years, the notion of the Revolution in Military Affairs has been a sensation as a new stage in the way war is conducted. Something extremely important is at hand, so I decided that it would be necessary to...

Background Check, Uncategorized 3 years ago

Mahan’s Next 100 Years

Alfred T. Mahan remembered mainly as a brilliant proponent and pioneer of modern naval strategy - also drew upon a deep understanding of world history to make some eerily accurate guesses at what the future might hold. This feels like a good time to look back on some of the predictions he made...

Background Check, Uncategorized 3 years ago