05.05.2010
Autor: Tomas Jermalavicius
April 9th, 2010, Portovaya Bay in the Gulf of Finland: first meters of the underwater “Nord Stream” gas pipeline, which will directly connect gas sources in Russia with its lucrative markets in Western Europe, are laid to the sea bottom. April 21st, 2010, the Gulf of Mexico: “Deep Horizon” offshore oil-rig, leased by BP, explodes and sinks, opening uncontrolled stream of oil gushing into the sea and, by now, threatening to become one of the worst environmental disasters for the U.S. southern coast. Except of these two events taking place in the same month and being related to energy supply as well as happening at the sea, is there anything else in common between them?
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postitas: RKK/ICDS blog
12.04.2010
Autor: Tomas Jermalavicius
It was Poland’s moment of 9/11. These were the words of one of close friends of the deceased Polish President Lech Kaczyński, describing personal reactions of many to the news of what will probably become known as the Second Katyń in the annals of Polish history. He is right. Not only the Poles received the brief first message with incredulity, disbelief and a slowly sinking realisation that this wasn’t a surreal episode from a bad Hollywood blockbuster, but a grim new day for the Polish nation. And everyone instantly recognized how cynical the human fate can be, given the context, destination and purpose of the President’s journey.
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postitas: RKK/ICDS blog
13.03.2010
Autor: Tomas Jermalavicius
A couple of weeks ago a brief controversy errupted in the Estonian media over the proposals to raise military retirement age for military personnel of the Estonian Defence Forces to 65 years. The proposal came as part of the effort of the Estonian government to balance its books and prevent the deficits of the social welfare system from spinning out of control in the future. The same package envisaged increase of retirement age for the personnel of the police as well as emergency rescue services. In many other countries of the EU, the demographic trend of ageing population combined with too generous state-sponsored benefits for retired public servants have already put an unbearable strain on public finances. The predicament has been exacerbated by the current economic crisis, which utterly discredited the model of endless borrowing by governments to plug the expanding hole in their budgets as completely unsustainable. From Greece to Latvia, from Spain to Hungary, examples of where bad policies lead are abundant, and Estonia’s wish to avoid the same path is understandable.
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postitas: RKK/ICDS blog
28.01.2010
Autor: Tomas Jermalavicius
In the eyes of the outside observer, Estonia’s intelligence and security services maintain a rather low-key profile in country’s public affairs, as befits their secretive and subtle mission. They have had their share of bad publicity and embarrassment – Herman Simm’s treason as well as scandalous allegations of illicit wiretapping activities by military intelligence spring into mind. But all this is nothing compared to the storms that battered Lithuania’s main intelligence and security organisation, the State Security Department, or VSD, over the last few years. (Not to mention past scandals of varying degree that hit other Lithuanian security and intelligence services such as the anti-corruption agency STT or military intelligence and counterintelligence service AOTD).
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postitas: RKK/ICDS blog
15.10.2009
Autor: Tomas Jermalavicius
October 15th is a Blog Action Day’09 on Climate Change, whereby thousands of bloggers from around the world – concerned individuals as well as NGOs and corporations – join to discuss this issue and underline its importance to their readers in the bloggospace (www.blogactionday.org). Security and defence community is notably absent from this action, but it does not mean it is not preoccupied with the matter: climate change and its security implications are a prominent subject in academic papers, policy reviews, foresight exercises and various gatherings.
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postitas: RKK/ICDS blog
26.08.2009
Autor: Tomas Jermalavicius
Confronted with formidable challenges of counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States military realised that their old ways of conducting warfare were irrelevant and that they had to relearn the forgotten tricks of “small wars” anew. In this quest, the U.S. military leadership became fascinated with a rather old managerial concept of learning organisation: the counterinsurgency manual of 2006 explicitly refers to the imperative for the U.S. military to turn itself into a smart learning organisation as a precondition for long-term success in current and future military campaigns.
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postitas: RKK/ICDS blog
26.06.2009
Autor: Tomas Jermalavicius
Last week, the Swedish parliament narrowly (153 votes in favour, 150 against) voted to pass a bill drafted by the government which suspends conscription to the Swedish Armed Forces. More than a century-old institution of universal duty to do military service for the Swedish state was put on a shelf and will be brought back to life only in a case of national defence emergency and when military preparedness requires it. If it happens, it will also be gender-neutral: that is, all men and women of suitable age and health will be drafted. But, for now, national defence duty will be done strictly on a voluntary basis, and the Swedish Armed Forces will switch to the all-volunteer force (AVF) format.
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postitas: RKK/ICDS blog
21.05.2009
Autor: Tomas Jermalavicius
On Sunday evening, champagne corks popped open in many places around Lithuania when the preliminary results of the presidential elections were declared. As expected, the EU commissioner for budget and financial programming Dalia Grybauskaitė won it handsomely already in the first round, collecting almost 70% of votes at 51% turnout. She will become the first female head of state of Lithuania ever.
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postitas: RKK/ICDS blog
15.05.2009
Autor: Tomas Jermalavicius
As befits a finale of an impressive marathon, last week the project team of the Multiple Futures Project (MFP) of the Allied Command Transformation (ACT) staged a grand show in the suburb of Brussels to roll out their final project report . In the pleasant surroundings of a SPA hotel, the birth of the Alliance’s view on the plausible alternative futures in 2030 was celebrated as the diplomats, military officials and academics discussed what should happen next. The show was complete with inspiring performances by such stars of future studies as Peter Schwarz and thought-provoking critical analyses by such heavyweights of strategic studies as Professor Colin S. Gray. As one participant aptly remarked, we definitely left the place wiser than we came.
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postitas: RKK/ICDS blog
27.04.2009
Autor: Tomas Jermalavicius
Twice a year, in spring and autumn, ministers of defence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania meet to discuss the status and progress of defence cooperation between the three countries. Every time a Joint Communiqué is issued, sometimes after quite heated discussions over its content and wording, to highlight the priorities, measures and steps to advance this cooperation. Last week‘s meeting, which took place in Tallinn, was no exception. However, contrary to most of the previous meetings, this one was slightly overshadowed by the impact of the deep economic crisis on defence. This theme very much dominated a roundtable discussion between top defence officials, Estonian and Lithuanian defence ministers and Latvian MOD‘s political director, held at the ICDS on Friday.
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postitas: RKK/ICDS blog
