Ministry of Peace

Where does the future lie for the private military industry? Those who watch the industry closely have noted it tends to migrate periodically. In the beginning, mirroring human evolution, the industry emerged in Africa.

At Booz Allen Hamilton’s headquarters in McLean, Virginia, the firm’s vice presidents specializing in intelligence oversee two types of contract: offer two types of services: training executives and supplying critical systems to the agencies. Virtually all of the latter call on its services: NSA, DIA, CIA, FBI, NRO, and NGA (see graph). Even IARPA, the newly- established R&D unit of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), relies of the firm’s technology assessments.

If you ever see a large tanklike vehicle rumbling through your neighborhood, take cover. It's not a good sign.

EVERY car coming into Manchester is being snapped by a new network of police spy cameras. Each day, 600,000 motorists' journeys are being captured, and the data will be stored for five years.

The next American president will inherit an overseas military base realignment process begun in the first term of the George W. Bush administration. This realignment, guided by an effort known as the Global Posture Review (GPR), was perhaps former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s chief intellectual and policy accomplishment during his six-year tenure at the Pentagon. Unlike his likely warfighting legacy, particularly in regard to Iraq, the GPR is on generally sound conceptual foundations. But a successful outcome for the Global Posture Review, roughly halfway implemented as of mid-2008, will depend on the next U.S. administration refining numerous rough edges of the current plan — and redefining the broader national security policy context in which any base realignment will inevitably be viewed.

WASHINGTON: The military's elite Special Operations Command has quietly stepped back from a controversial plan that gave it the authority to carry out secret counterterrorism missions on its own around the world. The decision culminates four years of misgivings within the military that the command, with its expertise in commando missions and unconventional war, would use its broader mandate too aggressively, by carrying out operations that had not been reviewed or approved by regional commanders.

Thirty years ago, the TV show The Six Million Dollar Man gave us the spectacle of a badly injured man totally rebuilt by scientists. Today the U.S. military is looking to do pretty much the same thing, for real, as I reported for World Politics Review:

Who are the new leaders influencing economic and political agendas around the world? What will life be like in America, Europe, Japan, or China in the year 2020?

The first high school dedicated to preparing students for the front lines in the Nation's homeland security has gone from theory to planning in Wilmington. The Project Manager for the Delaware Academy for Public Safety and Security, New Castle Attorney Thomas Little, signed a contract with Innovative Schools, a professional firm which will coordinate the mechanics of preparing the school for its eventual opening.

More than half of all terrorist deaths during 2007 occurred in Iraq and the world suffered an overall increase in terrorist deaths, partly due to rises in violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as Iraq, the US state department said today. In its annual counterterrorism report, the US state department said the number of people killed or injured in terrorist attacks jumped to 67,000 in 2007, up from 59,000 the year before. About 60% of those occurred in Iraq.