It's a helpful paper: the UN🇺🇳 needs to change the way its
peace operations are planned, budgeted and staffed. ✅
And you hit the nail on the head with this paragraph...😀👍

Commissioned by the UN🇺🇳Department of Peace Operations, our new study analyzes models for UN peacekeeping to address evolving global threats. It aims to shape discussions for the 2025 Berlin Peacekeeping Ministerial, focused on "The Future of Peacekeeping."
peacekeeping.un.org/en/study-on-...

👍🏻

What were the top causes & categories of deaths of U.S. Army active duty soldiers, 2014-2019?
Ans:
1) Suicide (GSW or asphyxiation)
2) Accidents (mainly motor vehicles but quite a lot of drug overdose) 
3) Natural causes
4) Combat 
5) Homicide
Source: www.health.mil/Reference-Ce...

Just recording the idiocy for posterity...

FY2024 budget docs suggest that US🇺🇸 defensive missiles are, overall, roughly twice as expensive as offensive missiles, when averaging all-up-round unit costs. This asymmetry is mostly due to the significant technical demands of air & missile defense interceptors. www.csis.org/analysis/cos...

I'm looking to hire a TA to work with me on two MA-level international security courses during AY24/25 at GW's Elliott School. The TA will run 2 in-person discussion sections (capped at 20 students each) in the Fall 24 and Spring 25 semesters. Compensation is c.$20,000. Details 👇

This is a really useful report on the use of drones in the Ukraine🇺🇦 war. Via @cnas.bsky.social
www.cnas.org/publications...

On security assistance to Ukraine🇺🇦

"🇭🇹Haiti’s Gangs: Can a Foreign Mission Break Their Stranglehold?" New Crisis Group report analyzing the prospects for the MSS that might deploy to #Haiti later this year. Here's the key points 👇
www.crisisgroup.org/latin-americ...

On Sudan🇸🇩.
Hemedti | Janjaweed | RSF

This is a really helpful overview of the inquiry against the +1,240 people arrested (as of December) in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol in support of 🤡Trump. Of course, the ring leader is still at large.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Interesting to see which mobile phones Africans are buying. 🇺🇸🇨🇳 map via SCSP.
open.substack.com/pub/scsp222/...

Gonna do some conflict assessment work next semester, including answering some of the empathetic questions posed by Prof. Ken Booth in his book "Strategy & Ethnocentrism" (1979: 38-40). You can play along at home with your friends... Pick a war, any war...

"Two Decades of Civilian Protection Mandates for United Nations🇺🇳 Peacekeepers."
My chapter in this interesting new book reflects on why civilian protection mandates emerged, as well as their main consequences and challenges implementing them in the field.
books.google.com/books?hl=en&...

There's never a bad time to share this. Prof. Ken Booth's review of Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" - "The worst book on world politics I have read in a long time."
doi.org/10.1111/1467...

This amazing article shows how the war in Tigray, Ethiopia🇪🇹 (2020-22) and deliberate blockade of its people caused drastic (direct & indirect) ecosystem🌲🌿 damage, reversing decades of prior environmental restoration efforts. doi.org/10.1016/j.sr...

If you're interested in what the UN🇺🇳 Security Council can (& can't) do in terms of crisis management, you should check out the new "UN Security Council Conflict Management Handbook." It's a practitioner’s guide to the Council’s conflict management tools. A digital version will be available soon.