US Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis visited Norway on Saturday July 14th. — The United States is our closest and most important ally, and it is an honor to welcome Secretary Mattis to Oslo, said Minister of Defence Frank Bakke-Jensen in his statement. Mattis confirmed the close relations, friendshipContinue Reading
An important milestone has now been achieved, with the Joint Strike Missile (JSM) passing the last of its planned tests in the missile qualification programme. The development phase of the JSM is now in its final stage and is scheduled for completion in autumn 2018. “This is very good newsContinue Reading
NATO and its member states are preparing for the next summit, which will take place in July in Brussels. Numerous diplomats and military personnel within NATO structures and the member-states are working long hours on the content and choreography of the summit. The strained transatlantic relations, however, threaten the entireContinue Reading
Minister of defence, Norway, Frank Bakke-Jensen was the keynote speaker at the IFS-conference on Joint Expeditionary Force in Oslo today. He opened the conference by welcoming the participating friends, included Generals and Admirals and said “…I hope you will use this occasion to get a better understanding of the Joint ExpeditionaryContinue Reading
Western states have redefined their take on international security, defence and the very logic that underscores relations between states within the international system during the post-Cold War era. When the Berlin wall fell, and the Soviet Union disintegrated, the West practically dropped the ball on deterrence and defence. As aContinue Reading
France, over the last decades, has experienced a long series of deadly and vicious terror attacks on their national territory. There is obviously a variation on the motives behind these attacks, but at least in the current situation, an overwhelming majority of attacks with a deadly outcome has clearly beenContinue Reading
On Wednesday 30 May, representatives from Norway, Sweden, Finland and the UK will discuss the multinational contingency force JEF, following an introduction by the Norwegian Minister of Defence (MoD) Frank Bakke-Jensen. Date: Wednesday 30 May 2018 Time: 08.30–10.30 (coffee and registration from 07.45. The MoD starts at 8.30 sharp, please be here onContinue Reading
On May 22, three new F-35 aircraft landed at Ørland Air Base in Norway. Six aircraft are now on Norwegian soil. – Our new F-35s are a major investment and the most important acquisition to strengthen the defence capabilities of our Armed Forces, said Defence Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen. By JanContinue Reading
A Five-Point Strategy to Oppose Russian Narrative Warfare (with the limited tools we currently have available) Image from the Beyond propaganda series: Information at War: From China’s Three Warfares to NATO’s Narratives, September 2015/Legatum Institute. Click here to download your copy of the complete paper (21 pages) signed Paul Cobaugh. Paul-Russia-published versionContinue Reading
How to Recover the Lost Children and Spouses of ISIS[1] Thirty-two-year-old American Samantha Elhassani, together with her four children—two brought into ISIS and two born there – is now awaiting her fate in a People’s Protection Units (YPG) camp near al-Hasakah, Syria. In 2014, she took her two small AmericanContinue Reading