Category: Armed Conflict

An armed conflict exist when there is an armed confrontation between the armed forces of States, or between governmental authorities and
organized armed groups, or between such groups within a State.

As the world inches back to a pre-WW2 order, the ‘middle powers’ face new challenges

In any age of economic stagnation and extremes of inequality, popular trust in democratic institutions corrodes. It has been corroding not just in the US but across the Western world for decades now. As such Trump may be a symptom, not a cause, of Carney’s “rupture” with the post-World War Two order.

Watching those old men making their way through the Normandy cemeteries was a graphic and poignant reminder that democracy, the rule of law, accountable government are not naturally occurring phenomena. They are not even, historically speaking, normal. They have to be fought for, built, sustained, defended.

And that is the challenge from here facing what Mark Carney called “the middle powers”.

Source:

Allan Little, BBC https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c99kkerr93ko

British security expert Edward Lucas says NATO cannot rely on the United States

Lucas believes “NATO is dying,” comparing it to a “marriage where you have one of the partners in the marriage using threats of violence and mocking the other partner for being trusting and idealistic.”

British security expert Edward Lucas: 'We can't rely on the United States' | DW News

Source: Deutsche Welle (DW)

Europe is again considering setting up the equivalent of a UN Security Council

EU officials and leaders are getting behind the idea, while lawmakers are drafting legal options.

“We lack a proper united leadership platform to discuss the most important European defense issues,” EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said last week. “It’s now an urgent task to turn this idea into reality.”

Sergey Lagodinsky, a German European Parliament lawmaker and vice president of the Greens group, is proposing a council gathering the leaders of Europe’s big six — Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and the U.K. — alongside two rotating seats for smaller countries and the European Parliament president.

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Canada should join European countries to show strong solidarity with Greenland, Denmark, and NATO

Trump faces off with NATO allies over Greenland

Trump’s text message on Sunday, January 18, 2026, to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, stating he no longer feels “an obligation to think purely of peace” after he failed to win Norway’s Nobel Peace Prize, was confirmed by Prime Minister Støre.

Trump questioned Denmark’s claim to Greenland and said he would put American interests first. “The world is not secure unless we have complete and total control of Greenland,” Trump wrote.

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An attack on Greenland “would make America weaker, not safer”

Greenland is not a marginal issue for Europeans. Threats against it cut to the heart of the idea of Europe, of sovereignty, international law and trust. Key European leaders recently stressed they are united in their position that it is up to Denmark and Greenland to decide their own fate — and no one else. The potential for a crisis is real, and what is most confounding is that this would be a crisis that is entirely unnecessary and easily avoidable.

Threatening to annex territory belonging to a NATO ally strikes at the very foundation of the alliance. NATO is not merely a military grouping; it is a community of liberal democracies that has endured precisely because its members trust — and do not threaten — one another. They consult, negotiate and resolve disputes peacefully. This shared political culture is not a luxury — it is NATO’s greatest strategic asset. It sets us apart from those that depend on threats and tricks to keep their “friends” together.

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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Greenland ‘can only be defended if it is part of the US’

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday, January 18, 2026, defended the president’s calls for the US to take over Greenland amid concerns from European allies that an annexation would destroy NATO relations.

Scott Bessent says Greenland ‘can only be defended if it is part of the U.S.’: Full interview

Lithuania accused Russia’s GRU of the attempted arson on a plant that supplies Ukraine’s army

Lithuanian authorities accused Russia’s GRU military intelligence service on Friday, January 16, 2026, of masterminding the attempted arson attacks of a plant that supplies radio wave scanners to Ukraine’s army.

The group that coordinated the attack was made up of Colombian and Cuban citizens living in Russia, and had attempted similar arson attacks. They had targeted oil infrastructure in Romania, construction warehouses in Poland and buses, a post office, and a cinema in the Czech Republic.

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Something is brewing along the Colombia‒Venezuela border

Around 4:40 a.m. on Jan. 6, just a few days after the US capture of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, armed men intercepted a bus carrying civilians and several policemen on the main highway near Tibú, a town on the Colombian side of the border with Venezuela. They ordered passengers to hand over their phones for inspection, and then proceeded to kidnap five police officers.

The assailants were members of the National Liberation Army, or E.L.N., a Colombian guerrilla group that started off mounting a leftist insurgency in the 1960s but has since expanded into criminal enterprises. As many as half of its roughly 6,300 fighters are now based in Venezuela, where they have, at least until this month, enjoyed an alliance of mutual convenience with the government.

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Atomic arms control could collapse if Ukraine suffers unjust peace

Andreas Umland, an analyst at the Stockholm Center for Eastern European Studies, warned that if Russia emerges from the war with Ukraine with territorial gains, atomic proliferation could accelerate worldwide.

“Countries will learn that nuclear weapons secure victories, while Ukraine’s disarmament led to devastating losses,” he said.

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