European Security and Defence Policy

opswarfare came across an European Union (EU) website a while ago which offered to mail some of its hardcopy publications to anywhere worldwide. Well, they appeared in the mailbox today.

The European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) is something like the military "face" of the EU, taking up peacekeeping missions in Europe, but also in other areas like Africa and Asia.


2 interesting initiatives spotted in the ESDP newsletter. (Summer 2009 edition)

EUPOL Afghanistan
Regular readers will note opswarfare's earlier comments on using policing techniques (as compared to military tactics) on the situation in Afghanistan. It is therefore heartening to see the EUPOL mission, specifically training the Afghan government forces on police, law enforcement, and justice issues.

EU Satellite Center
The availability of satellite assets provides a force-multiplier effect, allowing increased intel and also more accurate maps. It can also be used to record physical changes to the terrain, which will be useful for battle-damage assessment, and early-warning initiatives.

p.s. the link to the free publications webpage can be found here.

(Organisational) Culture and Carnage

Kings of War
A great discussion going on at the King's College London, Department of War Studies blog. As someone who is interested in military operations, and yet a supporter of human rights, this topic is right up my alley :)

Postscript
By accident, I stumbled upon the U.C. Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center. It documents many war crimes, going into detail in each case, explaining what happened, and how the Court came to its conclusion. Interestingly, I found the webpage after searching for "Singapore" on the HuriSearch website. It seems that some Japanese war crimes were on trial in Singapore after WWII.