Blogs to Watch

[bourbon]

New blog by Dr Mark Galeotti: In Moscow's Shadows

This blog's author, Dr Mark Galeotti has been researching Russian security issues since the late 1980s. Educated at Cambridge University and the LSE, he is currently head of the History department at Keele University in the UK as well as director of its Organised Russian & Eurasian Crime Research Unit. From January 2009, he will be Clinical Associate Professor of Global Affairs at New York University. His books include the edited collections 'Russian & Soviet Organized Crime' (Ashgate) and 'Global Crime Today' (Routledge) and he is a regular contributor to Jane's Intelligence Review, Oxford Analytica and many other outlets.

For good measure lets add Johnson's Russia List to this thread.

[bourbon]

The great Steve Coll (Ghost Wars, The Bin Ladens) has started a blog at The New Yorker called Think Tank. SWJ is sitting pretty on the blogroll already. Coll joins George Packer and his Interesting Times blog at the NYer.

[sullygoarmy]

Thanks...some interesting reading there. Two great authors of some must read books.

[zenpundit]

On both counts. Nice job !

[bourbon]

War and Peace - by Mark Urban, BBC News Night diplomatic and defense editor. Urban authored Big Boys' Rules: The SAS and the secret struggle against the IRA, which I imagine many here have read.

IS IT SAFE?, by Sam Fadis, former CIA officer runs a blog discussing terrorism and homeland security for The Capital of Annapolis, Md. Fadis is the author of Operation Hotel California: The Clandestine War Inside Iraq which was just published.

[bourbon]

Eeben Barlow's Military and Security Blog

About Me
Eeben Barlow
I founded the Private Military Company (PMC) Executive Outcomes (EO) in 1989. The company operated primarily in Africa helping African governments that had been abandoned by the West. EO also operated in South America and the Far East. I have lectured, and still lecture, to military colleges and universities on security and defence issues in several countries. I believe that only Africans can truly solve Africa’s problems. I currently consult to a USA-based company.

[h/t: Feral Jundi]

[bourbon]

National Journal Expert Blogs: National Security

Contributors:
Richard Aboulafia, Gordon Adams, Norman R. Augustine, Andrew Bacevich, Milt Bearden, Courtney Banks, Michael Brown, Daniel Byman, Vincent Cannistraro, James Jay Carafano, Col. Joseph J. Collins, Wolfgang H. Demisch, Lt. Gen. Jay M. Garner, Daniel Gouré, Lee Hamilton, Kathleen Hicks, Bruce Hoffman, Michael Jackson, Brian Michael Jenkins, Col. Robert Killebrew, Rachel Kleinfeld, Steven Kosiak, Andy Krepinevich, Dick Kohn, Larry Korb, Col. W. Patrick Lang, Hillary Mann Leverett, Col. Douglas Macgregor, Ron Marks, Stewart Patrick, Jim Phillips, Paul R. Pillar, Norman Polmar, Richard Hart Sinnreich, Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, Kori Schake, Michael F. Scheuer, Michael Schiffer, Chris Seiple, Daniel Serwer, Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., Loren Thompson, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, Stewart Verdery, Bing West, Winslow T. Wheeler, Wayne White, Sam Worthington, Dov S. Zakheim, Amy Zegart, Gen. Anthony C. Zinni

[davidbfpo]

Via searching for another item I came across this site: http://www.jihadica.com/ , now being run by a Norwegian team and this is from their 'About Us' page:

Jihadica is a clearinghouse for materials related to militant, transnational Sunni Islamism, commonly known as Jihadism. At the moment, much of this material is diffuse, known only to a few specialists, and inaccessible to the public and policymakers unless they pay a fee. Jihadica provides this material for free and keeps a daily record of its dissemination that can be easily searched and studied. These records are accompanied by the expert commentary of people who have the requisite language training to understand the primary source material and advanced degrees in relevant fields.

davidbfpo

[marct]

Nice catch, David!

[Rex Brynen]

Via searching for another item I came across this site: http://www.jihadica.com/ , now being run by a Norwegian team and this is from their 'About Us' page:

It is an excellent site, and the new Norwegian team is top notch (Brynjar Lia in particular has published some excellent studies on jihadist groups, as well as his previous books on the Palestinian security forces).

[LawVol]

Can anyone recommend a blog discussing national security issues and related topics from central and south America? Many thanks.

[bourbon]

Can anyone recommend a blog discussing national security issues and related topics from central and south America? Many thanks.

Check out Samuel Logan's Security in Latin America.

[davidbfpo]

Found via jihadica a new site that comments on events in the Yemen:
http://islamandinsurgencyinyemen.blogspot.com/

Not a place I watch much, so will leave others to judge how useful.

davidbfpo

[davidbfpo]

The blogsite www.afghanistanshrugged.com has been cited before here, but one of their articles has appeared on a South Asian website: http://www.himalmag.com/In-the-shade...ey_nw2885.html

The South Asian website (based in Nepal), not seen before, has a review of the Taliban by a NWFP journalist, different: http://www.himalmag.com/In-the-shade...ey_nw2885.html

davidbfpo

[Valin]

A very good blog following international criminal organizations
Friends Of Ours

[Greyhawk]

http://www.quattozone.com/
Blog by

Tadd Sholtis
An Air Force public affairs officer for 15 years, the views expressed here are my own and (sometimes sadly, sometimes mercifully) not those of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense or Air Force.

Currently in Afghanistan, and much more interesting than a public affairs release.

[Sigaba]

Mark Grimsley, an associate professor of history at The Ohio State University, has a nice blog at Blog Them Out of the Stone Age. This blog may be particularly useful to those interested in the historiography of war and the teaching of military history in the Ivory Tower.

Journalists for The Economist have blogs here.

[davidbfpo]

Formed in Berlin in May 2009 and just id'd (hat tip to 'Red Rat'), The Afghanistan Analysts Network: http://www.aan-afghanistan.org/index.asp?id=1

davidbfpo

[jenniferro10]

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ArmedwithScience.rss

[Schmedlap]

For me, the trick is figuring out not just what to read, but how, and when. Getting the division right between RSS reader, podcasts, radio, blog-browsing, twitter, and email is a work-in-progress.

My breakdown...

Audio Podcasts (at the gym, as well as going to and from, and running)
- The Ethicist
- Harvard Business Review
- CSIS
- Economist
- Martin Wolf
- Mars Hill Church
- Walk in the Word
- Insight for Living
- InTouch Broadcast

Video Podcasts (in the kitchen)
- Mosaic: News from the Mideast
- BusinessWeek - Mandel on Economics
- Reason.tv
- al-Jazeera (Fault Lines, Riz Khan)
- Fareed Zakaria (not a fan of his, but he has great guests)

Stitcher (iPhone/Blackberry app that plays audio podcasts; usually listen to during commute)
- Economist "The World Next Week"
- Wall Street Journal "What's News"
- Cato Daily Podcast (more political, but not left v right)
- Stratfor Daily Podcast

RSS Reader (whenever - laptop or iPhone)
- The Daily Star (Lebanon)
- The Jerusalem Post
- al-Arabiya (Pan-Arab)
- New York Times
- Washington Post
- Sabah (Turkey)
- Moscow Times
- The Australian
- Financial Times
- UK Telegraph
- Wall Street Journal

Email lists (usually read on iPhone while in the slower-than-death elevator in my apartment building and other random moments of waiting for stuff)
- Af-Pak channel
- FP Morning Brief
- Stratfor
- Gulf in the Media

Random browsing
- Stuff in my blogroll (already listed elsewhere in this thread)

- Twitter - I've found that twitter is ideal for following blogs that I read and of very little value for following major news outlets; it's handy to see when a blog or other site is updated (SWJ, Registan, Michael Yon, etc), but I don't need 20 random alerts every day from XYZ newspaper. I also don't understand how anyone can really "follow" hundreds of people on twitter. I follow 24 people on twitter and I still miss stuff.

- Facebook - I'm a newcomer to Facebook; is this purely a social medium or do people use it for news-related stuff?