Resources - News

This section includes the latest news relating to U.S. security policy around the world. Updated daily, the news provided in this searchable database highlights the most relevant security developments from around the world. 

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The Teen Killers of the Drug War

Tuesday, September 6, 2016
In the past decade, as the death toll from Mexico’s drug war spiralled, it was all too easy for people in the United States to think of the horrors unfolding just across the border as a foreign problem, as disconnected from our day-to-day reality as the conflicts in Libya or Syria. But Gabriel Cardona was an American kid.
Country(s): 
Mexico
Author(s): 
Patrick Radden Keefe
Publisher / Source: 
The New Yorker
Tag(s): 
Counternarcotics

Colombia’s War has Displaced 7 million. With Peace, Will They Go Home?

Tuesday, September 6, 2016
In the nation with more internal refugees than any other, you won’t find the uprooted and the dispossessed huddled in tent camps or fleeing in long caravans. Colombia’s war doesn’t look like that, at least not anymore. The United Nations counts about 7 million “internally displaced people” here, more than in Syria, Iraq or any other war zone.English
Country(s): 
Colombia
Author(s): 
Nick Miroff
Publisher / Source: 
The Washington Post
Tag(s): 
Refugees

South Sudan is Fighting Again. Can its Peacekeeping Mission Work?

Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Now, with July’s renewed fighting, the international community is hoping that the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the country’s peacekeeping mission, can help restore stability. That was the message when, on Aug. 13, the United Nations Security Council adopted a new resolution reiterating UNMISS’s mandate to protect civilians and adding a controversial new 4,000-person Regional Protection Force.English
Country(s): 
South Sudan
Author(s): 
Nina McMurray
Laura Bosco
Publisher / Source: 
The Washington Post
Tag(s): 
U.N. Peacekeeping

British Warship Sent to Libya to Target People-Smugglers

Tuesday, September 6, 2016
A British warship will arrive off the Libyan coast in the next few days in a dramatic attempt to intercept and arrest people smugglers as the flow of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean for Italy reaches record levels.English
Country(s): 
Libya
Author(s): 
Chris Stephen
Publisher / Source: 
The Guardian
Tag(s): 
Security Assistance

Nigerian Military: Some Officers Selling Arms to Boko Haram

Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Nigeria's military says some officers are selling arms and ammunition to Boko Haram, indicating the corruption bedeviling the country's fight against the Islamic extremists continues despite government efforts to halt graft.English
Country(s): 
Nigeria
Publisher / Source: 
The Voice of America
Wire Service: 
The Associated Press
Tag(s): 
Corruption
Counterterrorism

U.S. Gives Laos Extra $90 Million to Help Clear Unexploded Ordnance

Tuesday, September 6, 2016
The United States announced on Tuesday it would provide an additional $90 million over the next three years to help Laos, heavily bombed during the Vietnam War, clear unexploded ordnance that has killed or injured more than 20,000 people.English
Country(s): 
Laos
Program(s): 
Cooperative Threat Reduction
Publisher / Source: 
The New York Times
Wire Service: 
Reuters
Tag(s): 
Arms Control

Doctors Without Borders Is Pulling Staff After Hospital Bombings in Yemen

Friday, August 19, 2016
Doctors Without Borders announced on Thursday that it would evacuate its staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen because it could not get assurances that its hospitals would not be bombed again.English
Country(s): 
Yemen
Author(s): 
Shuaib Almosawa
Rod Nordland
Publisher / Source: 
The New York Times
Tag(s): 
Conflict
Conflict

America Leaves Its Allies to Battle Each Other in Iraq

Friday, August 19, 2016
The U.S. presidential race is ramping up, and with it have come declarations and promises. But solutions from Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton for solving the turmoil in the Middle East and the war on Islamic State won’t succeed unless the U.S. untangles the regions web of alliances and recognizes America's true friends. English
Country(s): 
Middle East and North Africa Regional
Author(s): 
Aziz Ahmad
Publisher / Source: 
The Wall Street Journal
Tag(s): 
Security Assistance

Should the U.S. Still Be Sending Military Aid to Honduras?

Friday, August 19, 2016
When the activist Berta Cáceres was assassinated in Honduras, in March, the news was devastating but not exactly surprising. Honduras has one of the world’s highest murder rates, and social activists are frequently targets—more than a hundred have been killed in the country since 2010. The relentlessness of the killings in Honduras has raised questions about how deeply the Honduran state is involved in, and responsible for, the violence. For U.S. policymakers, the death toll has also spurred a debate about whether the U.S. should cut off military aid to the regime of President Juan Orlando Hernández. English
Country(s): 
Honduras
Author(s): 
Jonathan Blitzer
Publisher / Source: 
The New Yorker
Tag(s): 
Security Assistance

Mexican Police Accused of Executing 22, Then Covering It Up

Friday, August 19, 2016
Mexico’s human rights body said on Thursday that the country’s police force carried out 22 extrajudicial executions on a ranch in Tanhuato in the western state of Michoacan in May 2015.French
Country(s): 
Mexico
Publisher / Source: 
TeleSur
Tag(s): 
Policing
Human Rights

Guatemalan President's Top Adviser Could Face War Crimes Trial

Friday, August 19, 2016
Top Guatemalan presidential adviser Edgar Ovalle Maldonado—accused human rights abuses during his country's dictatorship—may not continue to enjoy immunity from trial, as the Constitutional Court demanded the Supreme Court justify why it refused in January to grant prosecutors’ request to strip his immunity, reported La Hora on Thursday.English
Country(s): 
Guatemala
Publisher / Source: 
TeleSur
Tag(s): 
Human Rights

SouthCom Commander Backs Military Involvement in Fighting Crime

Friday, August 19, 2016
The top US military officer in Latin America and the Caribbean recently praised the involvement of the region's armed forces in fighting organized crime, a controversial stance likely rooted in the politics surrounding US security assistance to foreign countries. English
Country(s): 
South America Regional
Central America Regional
Author(s): 
Mike LaSusa
Publisher / Source: 
InSight Crime
Tag(s): 
Security Assistance

UN: South Sudan Government Recruited Child Soldiers in Past Week

Friday, August 19, 2016
South Sudan's government has recruited child soldiers in the past week to prepare for a renewed conflict, according to an internal United Nations document obtained by The Associated Press.English
Country(s): 
South Sudan
Publisher / Source: 
News 24
Wire Service: 
Associated Press
Tag(s): 
United Nations

Ethiopian Anti-Government Protests Set to Continue

Friday, August 19, 2016
Since November 2015, Ethiopia has been experiencing a wave of anti-government protests unleashed by fears by the Oromo people that the government was planning to seize their land. Hundreds of people have been killed.English
Country(s): 
Ethiopia
Publisher / Source: 
DW
Tag(s): 
Human Rights
Conflict

Al Shabaab Briefly Seizes Military Base in Somalia

Friday, August 19, 2016
Al shabaab says it has taken “complete control” of the Somali National Army (SNA) and AMISOM camps in Lafoole village in lower Shabelle region following an attack on Wednesday night.English
Country(s): 
Somalia
Publisher / Source: 
Shabelle News
Tag(s): 
Conflict

In Afghanistan, Special Operators Continue to Burn Both Ends of the Candle

Friday, August 19, 2016
Things aren’t going so well in Afghanistan these days. The Obama administration plans to reduce America’s presence there by only about half as much as it originally intended, from the current level of 9,800 to 8,400 instead of 5,500 by the end of 2016. The administration also expanded the rules of engagement governing the armed forces’ ability to involve themselves in conflict and will allow U.S. forces to accompany the regular Afghan military into combat situations. These expanding mission sets come at a time when the U.S. military continues to be underfunded, faces a troubling readiness crisis, and must contend with an increasingly dangerous and demanding global operating environment.English
Country(s): 
Afghanistan
Author(s): 
Phillip Lohaus
Publisher / Source: 
The Cipher Brief
Tag(s): 
Military
Security Assistance

Russia Brings Military Allies to NATO Border

Friday, August 19, 2016
Russian military exercises near its western borders have become de rigeur over the last couple of years, as tension between Russia and NATO has spiked. But exercises that kicked off this week are novel in that Russia has brought along its allies from the Caucasus and Central Asia, which have for the most part sought to avoid getting drawn into Russia's conflict with the West.English
Country(s): 
Eurasia Regional
Author(s): 
Joshua Kucera
Publisher / Source: 
EurasiaNet
Tag(s): 
NATO
Military Exercises

Ukraine Reports Heaviest Rebel Shelling Attack for a Year

Friday, August 19, 2016
Ukraine on Thursday reported the heaviest rebel shelling attack in the separatist east for a year in what the president said could be a prelude to a full-scale Russian invasionEnglish
Country(s): 
Ukraine
Author(s): 
Oleksandr Savochenko
Publisher / Source: 
Military.com
Wire Service: 
Agence France Presse
Tag(s): 
Conflict
Human Rights

Obama to Israel: Our Tax Dollars Won’t Go to Your Defense Contractors

Friday, August 19, 2016
Washington and Jerusalem are about to ink a groundbreaking arms package, but it hinges on ending sweetheart deals for Israel’s defense firms.English
Country(s): 
Israel
Author(s): 
Dan De Luce
Paul McLeary
Publisher / Source: 
Foreign Policy
Tag(s): 
Military Equipment
Security Assistance

Syrian Airstrikes Hit Kurdish-Arab Forces Fighting Islamic State

Friday, August 19, 2016
Syrian regime warplanes launched airstrikes against Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria on Thursday in a major escalation of violence between the two camps, according to officials and residents. English
Country(s): 
Syria
Author(s): 
Raja Abdulrahim
Noam Raydan
Publisher / Source: 
The Wall Street Journal
Tag(s): 
Conflict
Terrorism

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