Brazil’s Bolsonaro was convicted but the military appetite for a coup lingers Armed forces academies teach troops that military control would be better for the country, historians and experts say

The Brazilian military's superiority complex is deeply embedded in its role conceptions-its PME institutions still transmit the 'good military vs corrupt/communist civilians' worldview

Brazil’s Bolsonaro was convicted but the military appetite for a coup lingers
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

“Eyes on, hands off.” Mission command sounds simple, but micromanagement often creeps in. Too detailed orders, risk aversion, and a lack of trust make implementation difficult.

Currently in Stockholm to teach our latest in Mission Command in NATO.

📚 sjms.nu/articles/10.... (open access)

I have just encountered this too and find it unsettling. Are the reviewers of the book review reviewing the accuracy of the book review? In that case they should have read the book closely. Are they just checking that the review is coherent? If so, it would be misleading to say they’re reviewers…

And the US military is now in 'repeatedly obeying illegal orders' territory

“When Trump fired the military’s top lawyers the rest saw the writing on the wall, and instead of being a critical firebreak they are now a rubber stamp complicit in this crime.”

Centrale kilder: Mænd med forbindelser til Trump forsøger at infiltrere Grønland Grønland er mål for påvirkningskampagner, der skal slå sprækker i forholdet til Danmark, oplyser Politiets Efterretningstjeneste.

Danish state TV says men with close connections to Trump are trying to infiltrate Greenland - one of them arguably is creating list of local people who would support Trump's desire to take over Greenland

www.dr.dk/nyheder/indl...

Non-State Special Operations: Capabilities and Effects Published in Terrorism and Political Violence (Ahead of Print, 2025)

Got our first book review for Non-State Special Operations: Capabilities and Effects in @terpolv.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Trump’s Domestic Use of Military Set to Get Worse, Leaked Memo Shows A Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by TNR signals top-level discussions about a potential escalation of the Pentagon’s domestic anti-immigration role, and lays out new details.

Trump’s Domestic Use of Military Set to Get Worse, Leaked Memo Shows
#CivMilSky
newrepublic.com/article/1987...

It's a strange feeling after all the years of irresponsible defense cuts, but I really do believe (and proudly so) that Denmark is one countries in Europe that best have understood the new security situation and makes the right decisions. Nice to see that @alanderminna.bsky.social has noticed too.

YouTube video by Anders Puck Nielsen Why spend more on defense in Western Europe?

There is a lot of talk about higher defense spending in NATO, but I think many politicians have failed to explain adequately why that is necessary. So in this video I explain what is at stake for citizens in Western European countries.

Or that incompetent people can continue to fail for ages and ages

BSTRACTThere is a widespread consensus that armed forces are not suited for lawenforcement tasks. Most arguments against using troops in public securityare based on the lack of appropriate training and the military’s difficulty inpractising restraint when using force. Brazil has nonetheless militarised itspublic security provision by increasingly deploying soldiers in‘Guaranteeing Law and Order’ (GLO) operations – at times evenjustifying these missions with the military’s experience in UNpeacekeeping. Drawing on survey research, interviews and focus groupswith troops as well as the observation of training exercises, this articleasks: how has the participation in these missions affected troops’perceived skills in law enforcement? What kind of lessons are theytransferring from UN peacekeeping to internal missions and vice-versa?What are their perspectives on having to apply coercion gradually? Itwill be argued that soldiers perceive to have gained a considerableamount of law enforcement skills during UN peacekeeping and GLOoperations. However, there are clear limitations in critical situations.Soldiers and officers felt restricted by rules of engagement andconsidered the greater use of force allowed in UN peacekeeping asnecessary for the mission’s effectiveness. Not being allowed to act in asimilar manner in GLO operations has led to high levels of frustrationamong soldiers and officers. In the trade-off between the rule of law andeffective actions against criminals, troops tend to prefer the latter. Thisunderlines the risk of deploying soldiers in law enforcement roles.

When discussing the use of the military in law enforcement, I really don't like the "soldiers are only trained to kill" argument - it's much more complicated than that, but still a very bad idea*

(*Sad when old research becomes timely)
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #CivMilSky

Recommend everyone read this article by Christoph and Chiara

And yet, would anyone think US Congress would then impeach Trump?

Knock-on Risks to NATO’s Space-based War-fighting Capabilities NATO is more vulnerable to a war in the Indo-Pacific than is commonly understood. In a conflict between the United States and China, key US space-based capabilities would be tasked away from Europe...

Check out our new article in Survival written with Henrik Hiim.
We examine the knock-on risks of a US-China conflict to NATO's space operations and the potential impact on NATO's warfighting capabilities.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

"When it is clear that a civilian government (..) is weaponizing the military to protect its political interests, to attack its political opponents, or to undermine civil society, political neutrality demands that military officers not passively obey."
#CivMilSky
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/a-po...

This concerted campaign of US government officials in support of an extremist party is an open attack against Germany's democracy - all while these very same government officials are actively trying to destroy democracy in the US, too

Read this post about the US DOD trying to censor a peer reviewed article right before publication:

What we're witnessing is much more dramatic than the gradual nature of 'democratic backsliding'

If we are using the slowly boiling a frog metaphor for 'democratic backsliding', what we're actually seeing is someone forcefully drowning a frog in a baththub of fully boiling water

What was that book about the rise of Fascism in Germany, “Hitler’s Apolitical Executioners” or something?

"Caine said he would be candid in his advice to Trump and vowed to be apolitical."

You can't be APOLITICAL!!!

#CivMilSky

a man in a fedora is running through a tunnel . ALT: a man in a fedora is running through a tunnel .

Trying to avoid it, like:

Preventing the Military’s Slide from Critical Thinking to Anticipatory Compliance Thomas Crosbie - Columbia University Press Blog Thomas Crosbie critiques the Department of Defense's shift from critical thinking to anticipatory compliance under Trump.

cupblog.org/2025/04/04/p...

I agree as indicated in my piece which I’m sharing here. Getting US senior mil leaders to understand that they must not default to rule following in this breach scenario is extraordinary hard. I strongly suspect most American officers would go along with any prez order.

"if Trump directs the U.S. military to engage in such an operation, he could well precipitate the greatest civil-military crisis in American history since the Civil War."
#CivMilSky

Preventing the Military’s Slide from Critical Thinking to Anticipatory Compliance Thomas Crosbie - Columbia University Press Blog Thomas Crosbie critiques the Department of Defense's shift from critical thinking to anticipatory compliance under Trump.

Social scientist: the US military is crisis - wake up!

The cognitive dissonance of endless rejections from mainstream news and social science outlets STILL pathologically averse to talking about the military + endless bad news about military affirms (Belvoir closing)…

cupblog.org/2025/04/04/p...

Trump’s degrader strategy is very effective. Responding to it requires more than observing the disruption, since the point of the disruption is to be observed.

Instead of: “Trump did X”, try: “we all have to do Y now because some jackass did X”

NATO at 75 and beyond: internal and external challenges Explore the article collection: NATO at 75 and beyond: internal and external challenges. Published in Defence Studies.

www.tandfonline.com/journals/fde...

Check out this timely collection

Outrageous!

The corruption of the American military is happening so much faster than I thought possible. Weren’t there responsible leaders in uniform recently?