Granting authority to officers on the ground improves performance in unconventional operations Unipath Staff Lt. Col. Hisham Khaleel Mubarak Al Jarrah, commanding officer of the 77th Royal Jordanian Marine Battalion, recently hosted the Regional Marine Symposium in Aqaba with U.S. and Middle Eastern counterparts. Much of the discussion concerned strengthening these compact, flexible forces for operations against terrorists. Lt. Col. Hisham sat down with Unipath to discuss enhancing the performance of his battalion by giving more command flexibility to noncommissioned and junior officers on the ground. Unipath: How did you come up with the idea to give noncommissioned officers in…
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More than 4,000 women are engaged in the Afghan National Defense Security Forces MARTHA SCHAEFFER NATO SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMPONENT COMMAND-AFGHANISTAN When the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989 and the Taliban seized control of the government, Afghan women watched as the Taliban terminated their rights overnight. A country where women were granted the right to vote in 1919, a year before the United States, and guaranteed the right to education and to work in 1964 no longer allowed women to participate as equal members of society. During restrictive male-dominated Taliban rule, they banned women from work places, schools, and…
International Officers Learn Valuable Lessons at the U.S. Naval War College UNIPATH STAFF When the Royal Navy of Oman decided to hold a major naval exercise with Great Britain’s Royal Navy for the first time in 17 years, it reached out to the U.S. Naval War College for expertise. The Naval War College had just started a new, 12-week program for midlevel multinational naval officers called the International Maritime Staff Operator Course (I-MSOC). It trains officers to support complex maritime operations. Omani Lt. Omar Salim al Ismaili leaped at the opportunity to attend I-MSOC. He had been tasked with helping to…
Iraqi Lt. Yasser Al-Aboudi was a skilled, courageous and ethical Soldier in the battles to defeat Daesh UNIPATH STAFF | Photos by Iraqi CTS Media Office Stories of heroism continue to flow from Mesopotamia. The heroes of the Iraqi Armed Forces have put their lives on the line to expel the terrorist gangs and their deviant ideology out of this land where all sects have long co-existed in peace. The story of the heroic martyr Lt. Yasser Al-Aboudi, a member of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), would move any reader. Such stories show that, through the generations, the land of Iraq…
Hybrid warfare threatens to test the capacities of modern militaries Maj. Gen. ASKHAT N. RYSPAYEV HEAD OF the NATIONAL DEFENSE UNIVERSITY, KAZAKHSTAN Photos by Reuters The international situation is extremely complex, tense and periodically intensifies the contradictions between countries and ethnic, religious, political, social and other groups, which cause various conflicts. Despite the world’s declared desire to resolve conflicts by peaceful means, military force remains one of the main tools for resolving these problems. We see the need for an in-depth study of the causes and nature of military conflicts. First, let us consider the concept of such conflicts. According to…
Saudi Arabia hosts the first meeting of the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition UNIPATH STAFF Vowing to “pursue terrorists until they are wiped from the face of the earth,” Saudi Arabia’s defense minister, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, assembled leaders from 41 nations in November 2017 to launch a counterterrorism alliance stretching from North Africa to Southeast Asia. The aim of the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC) is to coordinate ideological, communications, military and financial strategies to thwart violent extremism. Prince Mohammed announced the multinational alliance in 2015, and the late 2017 gathering was the…
Soldiers defend borders, provide internal security and engage in humanitarian missions LEBANESE ARMED FORCES Lebanon enjoys a distinct international status despite its limited area and its small population of about 6 million. Some may wonder about the power behind that status, and the answer came from the great Pope John Paul II: “Lebanon is more than a country; it is a message.” This small country is rich in the values of its people and its humanitarian civilization. On its territory are 18 sects, among them Muslims, Christians and minorities, all living in harmony and peace. This historical example of coexistence…
The Afghan Air Force boosts firepower and improves training in the fight against terrorists UNIPATH STAFF Bolstered by the arrival of modern aircraft and the deployment of trained aviators, the Afghan Air Force is demonstrating greater mobility and firepower to convey Soldiers and supplies to and from battlefields across the country. Afghan leaders, together with partners from the multinational coalition, lauded the advancements of the Afghan Air Force in breaking a military stalemate against the Taliban and other terrorists occupying the country. “I am happily announcing that today a new page is opening in Afghanistan Air Force life,” Maj. Gen.…
Informational Warfare Helped Defeat Daesh in Iraq and Could Help Ensure the Peace UNIPATH STAFF Just weeks after Iraq eradicated Daesh’s last stronghold in the country, Baghdad hosted the 3rd International Conference on Countering Daesh Propaganda and Ideology. The mood among the multinational audience was congratulatory and optimistic in recognition of a victory that had reduced Daesh’s presence to a few locations in Syria. “Iraq achieved the complete victory by liberating its total land from the disgrace of Daesh using organic forces with support of advisors and experts from the coalition forces,” Safaa al-Din al-Sheikh, Iraq’s deputy national security advisor,…
United Nations peacekeeping troops from Pakistan have helped bring peace and security to Darfur Pakistan’s experience with United Nations peacekeeping began in July 1960, when the first Pakistani contingent was deployed in the Congo. Since then, Pakistan has contributed more than 160,000 troops in 41 U.N. missions in 23 countries. Of those, 144 peacekeepers, including 23 officers, have sacrificed their lives while performing their duties as of late 2017. At present, Pakistan is the fourth largest Troops Contributing Country (TCC), with 7,653 of all ranks deployed on seven U.N. missions. One of those is the African Union-U.N. Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). What…