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New Ministry of Defense Command Center HTTP://FMSO.LEAVENWORTH.ARMY.MIL Vol. 4 Issue #12 December 2014 Foreign Military Studies Office OEWATCH FOREIGN NEWS & PERSPECTIVES OF THE OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT Special Feature: RUSSIA Special New Essay:Ministry of Defense Command Center See pages 42 & 68 The Kremlin’s Economic Checkmate Maneuver TURKEY INDO-PACIFIC ASIA RUSSIA 3 ISIS’s State-Building Project 26 Turning up the Heat against Terrorist Forces 42 New Ministry of Defense Command Center 4 Turkey Commits Troops to ‘Resolute Support’ in Mindanao 44 Russia Experiments with Two-Tier Operational 6 Trends in the Turkish Military Industry 27 India’s Modi Government Faces Naxal-Maoist Reserve System Insurgents 46 The Future of Russian Force Projection: MIDDLE EAST 29 Vietnam Reaches Out to Regional Nations Private Military Companies 8 Iran Assessing and Expanding Cyber Operations 48 The Gear of the ‘Polite People’ Goes to the Field 9 Basij Organization Enters Cyber Operations JAPAN 50 Amid Cautious Optimism in Russia, Tunisia’s 10 A Naïve Approach to Cyber Defense 31 Japan and North Korea Open Talks on Future Remains Uncertain after Elections Worse than a Missile Strike Abductions 51 Russia Introduces Further Restrictions on 11 Turning Point in the Sinai Migrant Workers 13 Suicide Bombers, Snipers and Intimidation CHINA 53 ISIL’s Influence in the Caucasus Remains a Tactics 33 A Chinese Perspective on the Rise of Concern 15 Focus on Bab al-Mandab Islamic State 54 Russian EW or IW? 34 China to Set Up Anti-Terror Intelligence 56 Classified Defense Budget AFRICA Gathering Center 58 A Sober Ukrainian Assessment 16 Burkina Faso: Finally a Sub-Saharan Arab 35 Chinese Request to Increase Network Attacks 61 Russian Airbase in Belarus Redux Spring? 63 Everything but a Starbucks® 17 Cameroon Considers Next Steps in Conflict KOREA 64 Officer Cadre of Two Russian Arctic Brigades with Boko Haram 36 Pyongyang and Putin’s Propaganda Getting Quick Course in Arctic Combat 65 Russian Research in Antarctic Continues LATIN AMERICA CENTRAL ASIA 66 Increased Russian Naval Presence in the 18 How to Add Insult to the Colombian Peace 37 Alternative Border Security Solutions Mediterranean Process in Central Asia 67 Moscow’s Nuanced Approach to Strengthening 20 Colombian Insurgent War Not Over 38 Defense Readiness Challenges for Kazakhstan its Ties with Abkhazia 21 Colombian-Venezuelan Border Continues 39 Perceptions of Chinese Security Cooperation 68 Functions, Structure of the National Defense to Simmer in Central Asia Management Center 22 Mass Kidnapping and Murder of Students 40 SCO’s Expanding Security Framework: 69 Are Soldiers Needed on Future Battlefields? Highlights Corruption and Security Concerns in An Afghan Perspective Iguala, Guerrero 24 Human Capital Needed to Support EUROPE Peruvian Cocaine Production 41 A Handbook for Guerilla Warfare – 25 Authorities Investigate Serbian Mafia Ties Made in Switzerland to Drug Trafficking Activities in Peru The Vast Criminal Empire of Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel in Tamaulipas The Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is part of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command G-2’s Operational OE Watch Environment Enterprise and for over 25 Foreign News & Perspectives years has conducted open source research on foreign perspectives of defense and of the Operational Environment December | 2014 security issues, emphasizing those topics Volume 4 | Issue 12 that are understudied or unconsidered. Regional Analysts and Operational Environment Watch provides Expert Contributors translated selections and analysis from a diverse range of foreign articles and Africa Robert Feldman other media that our analysts and expert Middle East Michael Rubin contributors believe will give military Lucas Winter and security professionals an added Turkey Karen Kaya dimension to their critical thinking about the Operational Environment. China, Korea Cindy Hurst Youngjun Kim Tim Thomas Jacob Zenn Materials, outside of the original foreign press article, under copyright have not been used. All articles published India, Southeast Asia Ivan Welch in the Operational Environment Watch are not provided in full, and were originally published in foreign (non-US) Mexico, South America Geoff Demarest media. Brenda Fiegel FMSO has provided some editing, format, and graphics to these articles to conform to organizational standards. Central Asia Matthew Stein Academic conventions, source referencing, and citation style are those of the author. Russia, Eastern Europe Chuck Bartles The views expressed are those of the author and Anna Borshchevskaya do not represent the official policy or position of the Christina Chadwick Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the Ray Finch US Government. Similarly, the appearance of hyperlinks Les Grau and information, products, or services contained therein, Alyssa Jackson does not constitute endorsement by any part of the U.S. Emily Kangas government. The release of this information does not Greg Sarafian imply any commitment or intent on the part of the U.S. government to provide any additional information on any Editor-in-Chief Tom Wilhelm topic presented herein. Editors Ray Finch The Operational Environment Watch archive and the Harry Orenstein Privacy and Security Notice are available at: Design Editor Hommy Rosado http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil Contact FMSO at: [email protected] TURKEY ISIS’s State-Building Project 12 November 2014 OE Watch Commentary: On 12 November Source: “IŞİD kendi parasını tedavüle sokacak (ISIS will start circulating its own ISIS declared that it would start printing its own money),” Milliyet.com.tr, 12 November 2014, http://www.milliyet.com.tr/isid-kendi- currency—the latest of its efforts to establish parasini-tedavule/dunya/detay/1968483/default.htm itself as a state. In addition, an ISIS-affiliated media organization recently published a “The money that ISIS plans to print will be in the form of gold and silver coins. ISIS 16-minute video describing why ISIS is a state is expected to start circulating its new currency within a few weeks. With this model, and not an organization. The accompanying the terror organization took the circular coin that Caliphate Osman used in the year passages, which include excerpts from this video, offer insight into how ISIS is laying down 630. At that time, the coins that were printed would have Islamic writings on the one the pillars of statehood while projecting an side and the sultan’s name along with the date the coin was printed on the other side. image of confidence, control and victory. This gold coin was called an Islamic dinar and weighed about 4.3 grams.” The first passage, from the Turkish mainstream daily newspaper Milliyet, describes Source: “Islam Devletini Devlet Yapan Unsurlar! (The Elements that make the Islamic the new currency, and discusses how it will State a State!), 12 November 2014, http://www.takvahaber.net/dunya/islam-devletini- resemble that of the time of the Caliphate devlet-yapan-unsurlar-h10245.html Uthman, one of the successors to the Prophet Muhammad. The second passage is from the group’s Turkish-language mouthpiece “The El Bettar [media] organization published a video and showed, with visual website, where it published pieces of a video evidence, that the Islamic State cannot be called an ‘organization’. The [16-minute entitled, “Things that Make the Islamic State video] highlighted that the Islamic State is a… state, based on serious institutional a State.” The excerpt provides the first 3 of systems, solid rules and laws. the 15 points that the group mentions in its 1. Territory: The Islamic State controls a vast amount of territory split into over 10 video, including territory, financial resources, states, and it is constantly expanding. social services and institutions, airports, media organizations, courts, prisons, hospitals, 2. Private/indigenous financial resources: The Islamic State has indigenous financial foundations, education council, and an Islamic resources. Some of these include the oil and gas [reserves] that the Islamic State services agency. The group points out that controls; whose production and export is under IS’s control. it controls vast territory and claims that it is constantly expanding. It also points to its 3. The Islamic State has various institutions. One of the most important ones is the financial resources, including oil and gas General Services Islamic Administration Agency. This agency provides services resources which it controls, along with its to those Muslims in difficult war situations to help with their needs. These include various institutions. Consistent with this claim infrastructure services, electricity, communications. …” of having institutions, the third passage, from an international news source, discusses how the “Treasury Department” of ISIS has declared Source: “Islamic State Money: ISIS To Mint Its Own Currency And Create ‘Financial that it will be printing its own dinar currency, System,” International Business Times, 13 November 2014, http://www.ibtimes.com/ which the group allegedly claims “will help buy islamic-state-money-isis-mint-its-own-currency-create-financial-system-1723433 supplies for its expanding caliphate…” In June 2014 ISIS declared an Islamic “The militant group’s “Treasury Department” announced Thursday that it would soon caliphate in an area straddling Iraq and Syria. begin minting its own silver, gold and copper coins… ISIS will circulate six different It also changed its name to the Islamic State coin denominations of its currency, the dinar or dirham, which it said will help buy (IS) and claimed that its leader, Abu Bakr al- supplies for the allegedly expanding caliphate…” Baghdadi, was the caliph of all Muslims. The group conducts a comprehensive information operations campaign through its websites, where it boasts of its oil revenues, arms, organization and territories, demonstrating a sense of control, power, wealth and military strength. End OE Watch Commentary (Kaya) For more information, see the Special Essay in the October 2014 issue of OE Watch entitled, “ISIS’s Information Operations: Analyzing their Themes and Messages.” ISIS prepares to print its own currency.
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