Greatest hits, No. 5: Pentagon gives Beijing ultimatum on militarizing the South China Sea

Greatest hits, No. 5: Pentagon gives Beijing ultimatum on militarizing the South China Sea

Special to WorldTribune.com By Geostrategy-Direct.com U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told the Chinese defense delegation in Singapore that the U.S. will take appropriate action if China crosses the red line, i.e. further reclamation and militarization of the Scarborough Shoal in the Spratlys chain. The Philippines and China have fiercely clashed over the Scarborough Shoal […]

Chaotic Middle East to be without U.S. aircraft carrier for months

Chaotic Middle East to be without U.S. aircraft carrier for months

by WorldTribune Staff, January 1, 2017 The United States will be without an aircraft carrier presence in the Middle East for up to two months. The return of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower to its Norfolk homeport comes “amid a heated fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria and a slew of burgeoning […]

2016 was then: World stage set for more dramatic tension

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler NEW YORK — It’s once again time to consult the crystal snow globe and peer ahead into what events 2017 may bring. After a surprising, tumultuous and truly roller-coaster year just past, we certainly can hope for a more stable period. But should we? Despite the unprecedented electoral […]

Trump’s world: How to distinguish between allies, friendly rogue states and bad actors?

Trump’s world: How to distinguish between allies, friendly rogue states and bad actors?

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON – The U.S. refusal to veto the UN Security Council resolution attacking Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory as “a flagrant violation” of international law has triggered cries of outrage worthy of full-scale hostilities. You might think, from the responses of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that President Barack […]

Turkey’s Erdoğan aggressively courting Team Trump

Turkey’s Erdoğan aggressively courting Team Trump

Special to WorldTribune.com By GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs staff in Ankara and Washinngton, D.C. Turkish President Reçep Tayyip Erdoğan has moved rapidly to recapture U.S. strategic support by wooing the incoming U.S. Administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump. President Erdoğan is attempting to stem Turkish economic collapse, Turkish expulsion from NATO, and total rejection of Turkey […]

Analyst: Why Trump was right on ‘out of control’ F-35 costs

Analyst: Why Trump was right on ‘out of control’ F-35 costs

by WorldTribune Staff, December 23, 2016 President-elect Donald Trump “can recognize when he is being scammed” and the Pentagon was doing just that by telling him the U.S. could get F-35s “for two to four times what they originally advertised,” security analyst Winslow T. Wheeler said on Dec. 22. Trump had tweeted on Dec. 12 […]

Iran-backed Hizbullah forces in Syria using U.S. military vehicles, Israel says

Iran-backed Hizbullah forces in Syria using U.S. military vehicles, Israel says

by WorldTribune Staff, December 22, 2016 Hizbullah fighters in Syria are using American armored personnel carriers originally supplied by the U.S. to the Lebanese army, a senior Israeli military officer said. In an intelligence briefing to foreign reporters in Tel Aviv on Dec. 21, the senior officer showed a photograph of Iran-backed Hizbullah military vehicles, […]

China announces it will return U.S. underwater drone shortly after Trump statement

China announces it will return U.S. underwater drone shortly after Trump statement

by WorldTribune Staff, December 18, 2016 China has said it will return a U.S. underwater drone it seized in the South China Sea. Not long after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s statement criticizing the incident, China’s Defense Ministry said it would return the drone to the U.S. Navy. The drone, launched by the USNS Bowditch, a […]

Chinese warship seizes ‘sovereign’ U.S. underwater drone In South China Sea

Chinese warship seizes ‘sovereign’ U.S. underwater drone In South China Sea

Special to WorldTribune.com Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty The Pentagon says a Chinese warship has seized an unmanned U.S. Navy underwater glider that was collecting unclassified scientific data in the South China Sea. Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis says the United States has issued a formal diplomatic complaint about the incident and is asking for […]

Trump crisis in Beijing: Five ‘knowns and unknowns’ have Xi Jinping in the panic mode

Trump crisis in Beijing: Five ‘knowns and unknowns’ have Xi Jinping in the panic mode

Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, ‘Inside China’, Geostrategy-Direct.com “As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t […]