military – Page 9 – Coffee Spoons

The Spread of ISIS

ISIS is the main militant group threatening Iraq (and Syria) these days. The New York Times put together a nice graphic showing how in recent years the group has grown ever more violent by launching ever more attacks within Iraq. Of course, the other country of ISIS operations is Syria, where it has been involved in civil war for years now. This creates a battle-hardened group of fighters that is now, thanks to the fall of Mosul and Iraqi banks and military bases, well funded and well equipped.

Credit for the piece goes to the New York Times graphics department.

Iraq. Again.

Well, Iraq is in the news again. Basically because the Islamist insurgency in Syria has now crossed the border—to be fair, though, that happened awhile back—and taken control over swathes of northern Iraq. Part of that swath includes the city of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city with a population of almost 2 million.

The New York Times has been putting together a series of maps to explain the background of why this is happening (hint: that Shia–Sunni divide we talked about years ago, well it’s back) as well as where this is happening.

Credit for the piece goes to Sarah Almukhtar, Jeremy Ashkenas, Bill Marsh, Archie Tse, Tim Wallace, Derek Watkins, and Karen Yourish.

The South China Sea

Over the last few weeks, tensions have been rising in the South China Sea. While most of the world has been focused on violence in Ukraine and Nigeria, fishing boats and other maritime vessels in the South China Sea have been clashing—thankfully without the use of guns or missiles. These clashes contribute to a growing fear that one day, one clash will spiral out of control and lead to something more than required paint jobs for fishing trawlers.

Thankfully, for those of you unfamiliar with who exactly owns what and what they think they own versus what they think others own—in short a mapped out version of the conflict—the New York Times has put together a nice map.

Credit for the piece goes to Derek Watkins.

Comparing the Troop Deployments of Russia and Ukraine

Things remain tense in Ukraine, especially after the violence late last week in Odessa. But in many senses, Ukraine is limited in the operations it can undertake against the separatists, at least with its armed forces. A lot of this has to do with the tens of thousands of Russian troops, tanks, and aircraft now deployed along the border. Thankfully the Washington Post has taken the time to detail just what is known to have happened lately.

The buildup along the Russian–Ukrainian border

Credit for the piece goes to Gene Thorp.

NATO Deployments Near Ukraine

Things continue to deteriorate in eastern Ukraine. And along the other borders of Ukraine, NATO is boosting its presence with planes, ships, and soldiers. This graphic from Jane’s details the recent deployment of aircraft to the theatre.

Credit for the piece goes to IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly.

Syrian Anti-tank Missiles

Rebels in Syria have recently acquired American-made anti-tank missiles. But for those who don’t know how exactly the TOW missile system works, the Washington Post illustrated it. In theory, these weapons will give the rebels an advantage over Syrian armour.

Credit for the piece goes to Richard Johnson.

Defence Spending

As troops and tanks and rumble around the Ukrainian–Russian border, I was left to wonder just how NATO has been doing with defence spending. So I took defence spending as a share of total GDP. In general, NATO countries have been spending less since the end of the Cold War. The Baltic states are a bit of an exception. I would guess that is based on their fears of their big Russian neighbour. A fear that, as Ukraine shows, is not entirely irrational. The United States, of course, has been spending a lot because of Afghanistan and Iraq. As for Russia, after the collapse of its economy in the late 1990s, it’s been spending more and more on the military.

The data comes from the World Bank.

Recent Military Expenditure

The Crimean situation has highlight how much not just Ukraine is not ready to fight Russia, but also how much less Western Europe is prepared to fight. This piece from the Washington Post examines actual defence expenditure and then defence expenditure as a share of GDP. While Europe has remained steady or in decline, Russia has been ramping up its defence spending since the beginning of the 21st century.

Credit for the pieces goes to Patterson Clark.

The International Arms Trade

One of the possible set of sanctions against Russia by the United States and European Union would impact the country’s defence industries. This chart by the Economist shows how that might not have the most impact. Most of Russia’s arms exports go to China, India, and Algeria. None of whom are the United States or European Union.

Clearly I don’t love the pie charts. I would much rather have seen segmentation within the bars. Or a full-on Sankey diagram. But, the story is still worth telling.

Credit for the piece goes to R.L.W. and L.P.

Answering Some More Questions About Ukraine

So Ukraine is even more of a mess and in less than a week’s time, the Crimean people will vote in a referendum on whether they want to remain a part of Ukraine or rejoin Russia. This graphic of mine is an attempt to answer some questions—though hardly all I wanted—about Ukraine, Crimea, and about what the Russians have been doing. (To be fair, the Russians still don’t admit that the troops and soldiers are theirs. But really, I mean come on, we all know they are.)