Unipath

UNIPATH STAFF After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, residents of Central Asia found themselves living among stockpiles of radiological material. Uranium mines, storage warehouses and processing plants — and in some cases actual nuclear weapons — were the inheritance of their recent Soviet past. Thirty years of denuclearization and cleanup of radiological waste have made Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan much safer.  But the problem of illicit transfers of nuclear material — and the advent of new challenges with terrorists seeking chemical and biological weapons — demands a renewed focus on countering weapons of mass destruction (WMD).  Dr.…

BRIG. GEN. JOE HADDAD, LEBANESE ARMED FORCES A small country in a tense geostrategic environment, Lebanon experiences a disproportionate share of security challenges: terrorism, conventional warfare, asymmetric threats, manmade disasters, mass illegal migration and human trafficking, and smuggling of goods, weapons and illegal substances. All these problems place a strain on its borders, both land and maritime. With an estimated population of 5.6 million, Lebanon hosts the most refugees per capita in the world, with about 1.5 million Syrian refugees in addition to about 500,000 Palestinian refugees living in overcrowded camps. In 2006, the United Nations Security Council called upon…

MAJ. GEN. MOHAMED SALAHEDIN HASAN ASSISTANT MINISTER OF DEFENCE FOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, MINISTRY OF DEFENCE AND MILITARY PRODUCTION, EGYPT Warfare, like many other human activities, has been facilitated and governed by technology; that has always played an essential role in the development and transformation of warfare. For centuries, armies have had to upgrade their capabilities to preserve battle effectiveness. Nevertheless, those who failed to modernize were deemed to lose their advantage in theaters of war. Today, however, this focus on physical equipment has begun to make room for a growing preoccupation with innovative capabilities. While the 20th century witnessed dramatic…

UNIPATH STAFF    In a naval display stretching from the Arabian Gulf to the east coast of Africa and the northern Red Sea port of Aqaba to the Gulf of Oman, thousands of Sailors and Marines joined forces at the International Maritime Exercise (IMX) in March 2023. Perennial conventional naval operations such as minesweeping, gunnery practice, and visit, board, search and seizure shaped the exercise scenarios. However, IMX has shifted much of its focus to automation. So great are the expanses of the seas — and so strategically important those waters — that unmanned systems and artificial intelligence have become…

GEN. MICHAEL KURILLA, COMMANDER OF UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND Somewhere in the Arabian Gulf, a dhow makes its way along the surface of the water, almost 50 kilometers off the coast.  From the outside, this dhow appears just like the thousands of other vessels that make a trip over those seas every day.  But there’s a difference — this dhow is moving thousands of kilos of explosives into the region.  Those explosives are undetectable by any external observation. Suddenly, two vessels punch through the ocean at 70 knots. The men on the dhow are encircled before they can even piece…

HAMID AL ZAABI, DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE UAE EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING AND COUNTER TERRORISM FINANCING The United Arab Emirates has made significant progress in the battle against financial crime, but strengthening the system requires engaging with more stakeholders than ever before. Financial crime continues to grow in sophistication and frequently involves global patterns of activity that extend across multiple jurisdictions and financial institutions. In just a few years, reporting, investigations, prosecutions and fines have all risen dramatically as authorities have thwarted criminals with ever-increasing effectiveness. To put this progress into context, when it comes to confiscations (as a…

 Unipath Staff Unipath: What is the importance of holding exercises with colleagues from Gulf Cooperation Council partner nations and your strategic partner, the United States? Maj. Gen. Fahad: Joint exercises with our colleagues in the Gulf Cooperation Council and U.S. forces play an important role because the desired objectives of such exercises are to strengthen and standardize military concepts between GCC and U.S. forces. The goal is to standardize planning and execution procedures and to establish principles and foundations for coordinating the joint work needed to achieve required operational compatibility and integration among the military forces of these nations. Unipath:…

UNIPATH STAFF  The situational map at military headquarters displayed ominously glowing streaks of green arcing from enemy missile bases. They represented missiles on course for military and civilian installations in the Arabian Gulf. But the enemy had surrendered much of the element of surprise: Tracking the missiles was a military team from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, part of a multinational coalition tasked with defending the region.  The responses were as varied as the defensive arsenals of the partner forces throughout the Arabian Gulf. Patriot anti-missile batteries erupted with counterfire. Fighter jets sprang from airfields to intercept the approaching threat.…

I am pleased to provide this introduction to the latest edition of Unipath focused on the themes of peace, stability and good governance. In the Middle East and Central and South Asia, the achievement of these goals must contend with the threats of terrorism, radicalization and extremism. How best to respond to such challenges? For the states of the region, I believe we need to focus on the three C’s of consistency, cohesion and connectivity. By consistency, I mean adhering to well-known norms and principles of international law, including resolving disputes through peaceful means, not using or threatening to use…

UNIPATH STAFF For Qatar, among the latest countries to sponsor a domestic space program, the need for reliable surveillance above the Earth’s atmosphere is critical. Space debris, unknown objects, and electromagnetic disturbances require tracking to ensure the effective operations of Qatar’s communication satellites. On October 23, 2023, the Qatar Armed Forces signed a Space Situational Awareness data sharing agreement with U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM) designed to provide improved surveillance of the increasingly cluttered space above Earth. Qatari Maj. Gen. Abdulaziz Al Dosari, advisor to Qatar’s deputy prime minister and minister of state for defense affairs for space and telecommunications, signed…