Military - new material (63)
01 April 2008
France, NATO and European defence, Tomas Valasek. Centre for European Reform Policy Brief (rev.), (London) March 2008 (cer.org.uk).
Permanent Structured Cooperation and the future of ESDP, Sven Biscop. Egmont Paper 20, (Gent, Belgium) April 2008 (egmontinstitute.be)
Could France bring NATO and the EU Closer Together? Ronka Kempin. Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Berlin May 2008 (swp-berlin.org)
Informed Choice? armed forces recruitment practice in the United Kingdom, David Gee. Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust January 2008. This report concludes that potential new recruits to the army are subjected to "a misleading picture of life in the military." It says that: "Advertisements and recruitment literature glamorise warfare, omit vital information and fail to point out the risks and responsibilities associated with a forces career." It recommends sweeping changes to armed forces recruitment policies including: a new charter setting out the state's responsibilities; a radical review of recruitment literature, phasing out the recruitment of minors and new rights for recruits to leave the service." Available as a free download at: http://www.informedchoice.org.uk/informedchoiceweb.pdf
"Eyes Wide Shut? The Impact of Embedded Journalism on Dutch Newspaper Coverage of Afghanistan", Ulrich Mans, Christa Meindersma and Lars Burema, Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, April 2008, pp 43. The Dutch Ministry of Defence offers journalists embedded expeditions to Dutch military operations in Uruzgan. They are hosted by the Dutch contingent and articles have to be submitted for operational security review prior to publication. Dutch embedded journalists cooperate closely with the Ministry of Defence before, during and after their embed experience. Many have developed a close relationship with the military as a consequence. Embeddedness raises questions about objectivity, censorship and journalistic independence. Current research by the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies looks at embedded journalism, how it affects Dutch coverage of Afghanistan and whether regulations for future reporting should be changed. As part of this research HCSS conducted a software-based text mining analysis on Dutch press coverage of Afghanistan. This analysis consists of two parts 1) the comparison of a sample of embedded and unembedded articles, and 2) the analysis of a sample of the complete Dutch press coverage of Afghanistan. This shows that embedded journalists write mainly about the Dutch troops and their military operational activities while uncompromised reporters focus more on the socio-political situation in Afghanistan. While more journalists are writing about Afghanistan the focus has narrowed, and the authors suggest that the close interaction between military and journalists may also jeopardise the independence of reporting. The report concludes that the Dutch press in general could benefit from maintaining a professional distance from the military, and finding more ways to complement embedded with unembedded reporting. The report can be downloaded for free at http://www.hcss.nl/en/download/651/file/HCSS%20Rapport%20Embedded%20Journalism.pdf
UK Army in Iraq: time to come clean on civilian torture, Kevin Laue & Adam Lang. Redress Trust (October 2007), pp. 72. This report was prompted by the murder of Baha Mousa, a civilian who was beaten to death in British custody in Iraq and the alleged perpertrators (with the exception of one soldier who pleaded guilty) cleared at a court martial. It highlights a number of concerns, "focussing on key aspects of the UK army's procedures for dealing with detained civilians, particularly during the period when the fighting against Saddam's forces officially stopped and the hand-over to the Iraqi authorities took place: 1 May 2003 to 30 June 2004". Available as a free download at: http://www.redress.org/publications/UK_ARMY_IN_IRAQ_-_TIME_TO_COME_CLEAN_ON_CIVILIAN_TORTURE_Oct%2007.pdf
Massive escalation of air war in Iraq, Saleh Mamon. Labour Briefing February 2008, p6. Interesting article on the escalation (500% from 2006 to 2007) in US bombing raids in Iraq and the use of the GBU 12, a laser guided bomb with a 500-pound general purpose warhead. As the US is determined to reduce its casualties by withdrawing its troops from the frontline and replacing them with inexperienced Iraqi troops, Iraqi civilians should expect an escalation of indiscriminate high-tech US bombing in the future.
The Facade of Arms Control: how the UK's export licensing system facilitates the arms trade, Anna Stavrianakis. Goodwin Paper #6 (CAAT). This report contrasts the government's claims to have a "rigorous and responsible licensing system to control its arms exports" with its practice of exporting arms to "repressive states [such as Indonesia, Israel and Saudi Arabia], conflict zones and areas of regional instability". Stavrianakis concludes that arms export guidelines are interpreted to facilitate exports and that this should be seen "in the wider context of the integration of arms capital into state structures...The licensing process is thus better understood as a ritualised activity that functions to create the appearance of control and image of benevolence and restraint." Available as a free download on the CAAT website: http://www.caat.org.uk/publications/government/facade-2008-02.php