Counternarcotics

Wrapping up my remarks at the National Defense University last month, I told senior military leaders in the audience that if they remembered anything I said, it was that strategic leadership boils down to establishing guiding principles, setting priorities, knowing your operating environment and – lastly, but most importantly – finding as many partners as you can to solve the tough problems this uncertain world is going to throw at you.

In a joint operation, the Colombian Navy and Air Force recently seized a submersible vessel that terrorists were constructing in the Department of Nariño.

Afghan opium cultivation again rose to historic levels in 2014, United Nations officials reported on Wednesday. And in a sign of how deeply entwined drug trafficking and the Afghan political system have become, the officials said the protracted elections this year were at least part of the cause.

Nazar Mohammad gave up opium farming two years ago in a Taliban-dominant river valley in southern Afghanistan to make 10 times less working as a local policeman. Now he regrets the move.