Diplomacy & Crisis News

Pourquoi ne pas célébrer, sans la moindre réserve, la louange du président Giscard d'Estaing ? Par une opération plus spectaculaire qu'onéreuse, brève dans son déroulement mais riche d'effets durables, il a obtenu un triple succès diplomatique, économique et politique. C'est le bilan diplomatique de (...) / Afrique, États-Unis (affaires extérieures), France, URSS, Coopération internationale, Impérialisme, Relations internationales, Tiers-monde, Diplomatie, Zaïre 1971-1997 - 1977/05

An innovative initiative to provide child-friendly information about COVID-19 has been launched by a UN volunteer (UNV) in Thailand who recognized that children needed to know more about the dangers of the virus but also have fun learning at home during the lockdown. On International Volunteer Day marked annually on 5 December, UNICEF’s Rasa Pattikasemkul talks about motivation, family loss and keeping children safe.

Even though soil organisms play a crucial role in boosting food production, enhancing nutritious diets, preserving human health, and combating climate change, the real contribution of these tiny life forms remains largely underestimated, the UN agriculture agency (FAO) said on Friday. 

The United Nations-African Union (AU) partnership has yielded “significant results”, including at the country level, the UN chief told the Security Council on Friday. 

Scientists developing COVID-19 vaccines are optimistic that by the end of next year, all people everywhere will have access to safe and effective treatments against a disease which has disrupted the entire planet. 

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) sounded the alarm on Friday over the “growing perception” that the COVID-19 pandemic is over, despite exploding infection rates in some countries and enormous pressure growing on health services.

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the continuing ceasefire in and around Nagorno-Karabakh on Friday, underlining that the Organization stands ready to provide humanitarian support to meet the needs of all civilians impacted by conflict.

Pourquoi ne pas célébrer, sans la moindre réserve, la louange du président Giscard d'Estaing ? Par une opération plus spectaculaire qu'onéreuse, brève dans son déroulement mais riche d'effets durables, il a obtenu un triple succès diplomatique, économique et politique. C'est le bilan diplomatique de (...) / Afrique, États-Unis (affaires extérieures), France, URSS, Coopération internationale, Impérialisme, Relations internationales, Tiers-monde, Diplomatie, Zaïre 1971-1997 - 1977/05

Critical decisions made now to address the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to a life of dignity for all people, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said on Friday, addressing the second and final day of the General Assembly’s special session devoted to the crisis. 

The human rights situation in Belarus continues to deteriorate, particularly with respect to peaceful assembly, the UN rights chief said on Friday, urging the government to put an end to ongoing violations and “take steps towards a genuine, respectful and inclusive national dialogue”. 

The UN’s humanitarian coordination office, said on Friday that it was doing its utmost to secure aid access to Ethiopia’s Tigray region, after a deal was struck to reach displaced civilians, following weeks of fighting between federal and regional forces.

La concentration des gisements de minerais le long des « points chauds » de l'Afrique australe : « ceinture de cuivre » (Shaba et Zambie), Rhodésie, Afrique du Sud et Namibie. / Afrique australe, Rhodésie du Sud 1890-1980, Zimbabwe, Afrique du Sud, Malawi, Zaïre 1971-1997, Namibie, Angola, Mozambique, (...) / Afrique australe, Rhodésie du Sud 1890-1980, Zimbabwe, Afrique du Sud, Malawi, Zaïre 1971-1997, Namibie, Angola, Mozambique, Botswana, Matières premières, Cuivre, Géopolitique, Charbon - Afrique

Suite au sondage réalisé sur ce blog, nous avons le plaisir de vous offrir en avant-première l’article du numéro d’hiver 2020-2021 de Politique étrangère (n° 4/2020) – disponible dès lundi 7 décembre – que vous avez choisi d'(é)lire : « La Turquie : une puissance émergente qui n’a pas les moyens de ses ambitions », écrit par Jana Jabbour, docteur en science politique et enseignante à Science Po Paris.

À l’été 2020, la posture de plus en plus agressive de la Turquie sur la crise
libyenne et sur les enjeux énergétiques en Méditerranée orientale a retenu
l’attention de l’opinion internationale et suscité l’ire des pays européens,
France en tête. Les déclarations polémiques du président turc à propos
de la Libye – « ces terres où nos ancêtres ont marqué l’histoire » –, les
points marqués par Ankara en Tripolitaine, ainsi que l’activisme diplomatico-militaire de la Turquie en Méditerranée orientale ont démontré le pouvoir de nuisance de cette puissance régionale, et aggravé ses tensions avec l’Union européenne (UE) et l’Organisation du traité de l’Atlantique nord (OTAN).

Bien que la diplomatie turque paraisse agressive, anti-occidentale, voire
irrationnelle, le positionnement d’Ankara sur les crises du Moyen-Orient
et de l’Afrique du Nord, et les enjeux énergétiques en Méditerranée orientale, repose en réalité sur une doctrine stratégique et un objectif clairs : faire de la Turquie une puissance régionale majeure et un État pleinement souverain dont la conduite n’est dictée que par ses intérêts nationaux.

La Turquie, puissance moyenne émergente en quête de statut

L’expansionnisme régional turc sous le règne du Parti de la justice et du développement (AKP) et du président Erdogan est souvent interprété de façon réductrice comme le reflet d’une diplomatie « néo-ottomane » visant à restaurer la grandeur ottomane de la Turquie, et à reconstituer une sphère d’influence dans les territoires ayant jadis appartenu à la Sublime Porte. Les références de plus en plus nombreuses, dans le discours de l’AKP, à l’islam et à la civilisation islamique, le rapprochement d’Ankara vis-à-vis de la Russie et de l’Iran, les furieuses sorties d’Erdogan contre les dirigeants européens, ont contribué à nourrir ces soupçons de « néo-ottomanisme », et donné l’impression d’un changement d’axe de la diplomatie turque dans le sens d’une rupture avec l’Europe et l’Occident.

En fait, la diplomatie turque semble mue par des dynamiques plus complexes. Au tournant du XXIe siècle, la Turquie a accédé au rang de puissance moyenne émergente. Elle mène donc une « diplomatie de puissance émergente », caractérisée par une affirmation de soi aiguë, une quête de statut à l’échelle internationale, et un désir d’indépendance et d’autonomie dans la conduite de ses relations internationales. En tant que puissance émergente, la Turquie suit une logique de diversification de ses relations et de son réseau de partenariats et d’alliances, afin de maximiser ses intérêts dans un monde multipolaire. En tissant des liens avec des acteurs antagoniques du système international (UE/Russie, Iran/Israël, OTAN/Russie/Iran), Ankara cherche à devenir un acteur incontournable des relations internationales.

L’affirmation accrue d’Ankara au Moyen-Orient et en Afrique du Nord rentre dans le cadre de cette diplomatie de puissance émergente. En adoptant une posture proactive, et en s’affirmant comme puissance régionale dans cette région clé pour les équilibres géopolitiques mondiaux, Ankara entend accroître son poids sur la scène internationale pour devenir un État-pivot et un acteur-clé de la gouvernance mondiale. En ce sens, le Moyen-Orient est conçu de façon instrumentale comme une zone d’influence, une arrière-cour et un tremplin, nécessaires pour l’affirmation de la Turquie comme puissance sur la scène internationale. D’où l’insistance des diplomates turcs, tout au long des années 2000, sur la métaphore du tir à l’arc : « Il faut concevoir notre politique au Moyen-Orient à travers la métaphore du tir à l’arc ; plus nous tirons fort au Moyen-Orient et plus loin nous atterrirons en Europe. » D’où leur insistance, aussi, sur la métaphore des cercles concentriques : la Turquie déploie sa stratégie de puissance d’abord dans un premier cercle – le Moyen-Orient – pour rayonner, à partir de là, en Europe et dans le monde. En ce sens, dans la réflexion stratégique turque, la dimension régionale de la diplomatie est arrimée à la dimension globale ; la politique arabe de la Turquie est étroitement liée à la quête de statut et de puissance à l’échelle mondiale.

Un autre objectif stratégique guide la diplomatie d’Ankara : celui de faire de la Turquie un carrefour énergétique (hub) en Méditerranée. Cette dimension énergétique est en effet cruciale pour comprendre le comportement d’Ankara sur la scène régionale et internationale. Économie émergente en pleine expansion, la Turquie connaît une forte croissance de sa demande énergétique – d’environ 7 à 8 % par an –, alors qu’elle ne dispose que de très peu de ressources sur son territoire. Elle importe plus de 90 % de sa consommation totale d’hydrocarbures, ce qui entraîne une forte augmentation de sa facture énergétique et aggrave sa dépendance vis-à-vis de ses principaux fournisseurs, l’Iran et la Russie. Compte tenu de cet état de fait, la diplomatie turque est sous-tendue par un double objectif : d’une part assurer la sécurité énergétique du pays en diversifiant les sources d’importations et en tissant de bonnes relations avec les voisins riches en hydrocarbures (Irak, Qatar, Azerbaïdjan) ; d’autre part renforcer le positionnement de la Turquie en Méditerranée orientale, de façon à permettre au pays d’exploiter les nouvelles ressources d’hydrocarbures qui y sont découvertes, dans une zone délimitée au Nord par les côtes turques, à l’Est par les côtes syriennes, libanaises, israéliennes et la bande de Gaza, à l’Ouest par les îles grecques de Rhodes et de Crète, au Sud par les côtes égyptiennes, et au centre par l’île de Chypre.

L’engagement d’Ankara en Libye et en Méditerranée orientale

C’est dans le cadre de cette réflexion stratégique que l’activisme diplomatico-
militaire récent de la Turquie en Libye et en Méditerranée orientale prend tout son sens. […]

Lisez le texte dans son intégralité ici.

Amoureux de bandes dessinées, de belles lettres et de beaux-arts, Alex Chauvel et Guillaume Trouillard ont réuni leurs talents afin de concevoir un livre-accordéon qui se déploie pour une magnifique balade en quatre tableaux dans la Chine ancienne . Le sage Song Jiang, installé sur la « montagne de (...) / Chine, Livre, Bande dessinée, Art - 2020/12

Après six ans de conflit, les populations musulmanes des villes algériennes investirent soudain la rue pour réclamer l'indépendance. Les protestations pacifiques de décembre 1960 prirent de court tant les autorités françaises que le FLN. Malgré la répression, le mouvement mit en échec les tentatives du (...) / Afrique du Nord, France, Algérie, Guerre d'Algérie 1954-1962, Mouvement de libération, Autodétermination des peuples, Colonialisme, Mouvement de contestation, Répression, Indépendance - 2020/12

This article is the English version of : Jean-Baptiste Jeangène-Vilmer, « Diplomatie des armes autonomes : les débats de Genève », published in Politique étrangère, Vol. 81, Issue 3, 2016.

Autonomous weapon systems – “Killer robots” in the popular culture – are weapon systems that can select and attack targets without human intervention. The first informal experts’ meeting on lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) was organized in 2014 at the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) in Geneva, on the initiative of France, which also presided over the meeting. The last of these annual meetings took place April 11–15, 2016, under German presidency for the second consecutive year. It confirmed the growing interest in the subject from states and civil society: 95 states participated in the debates, alongside several UN institutions, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), numerous NGOs from around the world, and 34 international experts (compared to 90 states and 30 experts in April 2015, and 87 state and 18 experts in May 2014).

At this meeting states for the first time unanimously adopted general recommendations for the fifth CCW Review Conference, which will take place December 12–16, 2016. The recommendations included the creation of a Governmental Group of Experts (GGE) beginning in 2017, cementing the transition from informal meetings (2014–2016) to a formal process.

Three years of meetings have left civil society and several states increasingly impatient, and so this year there was a clear desire to achieve results. Already anti-LAWS NGOs had indicated that they would no longer be fooled by certain states’ delaying strategies, which have been attempting to drag out the subject of LAWS at the CCW, where the consensus-based decision-making allows them to exert a level of control, rather than meaningfully advancing the discussion.

In particular, there was a growing desire to move forward without resolving all the conceptual problems, against the wishes of states like China, which suggested that “first, we must know what autonomy means” before being able to discuss LAWS. Canada’s statement that it “does not find it useful to debate the meaning of autonomy out of context” captured the wishes of many states to move toward “more concrete” matters.

The April 2016 meeting confirmed that the main topics of discussion have remained unchanged over the last three years, namely, issues of definition, human control, responsibility, and legal review. Rather than going to the root of these questions, this paper will address the procedure, negotiations, the balance of power, and generally the diplomatic dimension of the last round of Geneva debates.

What are we talking about ?

Unlike previous years, this time the question was less the definition of LAWS or autonomy but rather of whether it was even necessary to define them. The delegations initially divided themselves into two camps: those who made the definition a prerequisite condition for any discussion (which was interpreted by others, particularly civil society, as a way of blocking discussion), and those who agreed to leave the definition until later. A consensus was reached that an exhaustive and final definition at this stage was impossible, but that nevertheless a provisional working definition should be used to move discussions forward.

Analyzing definitions in disarmament treaties supports this gradual approach: the definitions, which are not always based on the same criteria (effects, functions, usage, or possible targets of the weapons), are generally among the very last issues to be settled. However, the case of LAWS is special, which limits the relevance of such precedents. As Brazil usefully recalled, this time the weapon being defined does not yet exist. The weapons previously prohibited had existed for decades and their effects were perfectly known. They could therefore be banned without a precise definition. The absence of shared experience or understanding make LAWS different. […]

Read the rest of the article here.

>>> More articles of Politique étrangère are available for reading
on Cairn International <<<

Kyle Mizokami

Security,

Among the latest innovations is a new generation of pistol-caliber rifles, which combines smaller pistol calibers with a rifle or carbine-length weapon.

Here's What You Need to Know: Pistol caliber carbines (PCCs) are not new.

The explosion of interest in the modern sporting rifle, as well as the natural pace of industry innovation, has driven the firearms industry to field semi-automatic rifles in an increasingly broad number of configurations. One of the latest innovations is a new generation of pistol-caliber rifles, which combines smaller pistol calibers with a rifle or carbine-length weapon.

Pistol caliber carbines (PCCs) are not new: some of the more famous from recent history include the Ruger .44 Magnum carbine and 9mm rifles. The adaptability of the AR-15 platform—as well as those offered by manufacturers including Beretta, Kel-Tec and CZ—has made it possible to adapt them to calibers including 9mm Luger, 10mm Auto, .40 Smith & Wesson and even .45 ACP. These are five of the best PCCs out there.

Quarter Circle 10 Pistol Caliber Carbine

The modular nature of the AR-15 weapon system makes it possible for designers to concentrate on perfecting a pistol caliber action without concern for the rest of the weapon. From the consumer side, a familiarity with AR rifles makes adoption of an AR-based PCC a relatively easy matter. Several manufacturers offer their own AR-based pistol-caliber carbine, and Texas-based Quarter Circle 10’s PCCs are representative of industry trends.

Quarter Circle PCCs are primarily based on the AR-15, but use a blowback operating system instead of the AR platform’s direct impingement system. In other words, the recoil generated from the gun firing drives the action instead of burned gunpowder gasses. Like many AR-based vendors, Quarter Circle’s designs accept Glock magazines and magazines derived from Colt’s 9mm line of carbines. The QC carbines and pistol receivers come in 9mm Luger, .40 Smith & Wesson, and .45 ACP, while the weapon can use existing rifle stocks, carbine stocks, and pistol braces.

Beretta Cx4 Storm

Just as AR-15 owners can smoothly transition to AR-based pistol caliber carbines, the Beretta Cx4 allows those familiar with Berettas to quickly adopt a shoulder-fired weapon. The Storm has the same set of controls as Beretta pistols—an appealing feature to police agencies and individuals that already use Beretta weapons. The Cx4 takes magazines in the grip, like a Beretta pistol, instead of a separate magazine well in front of the trigger control group.

The Cx4 can also use magazines from the company’s Px4 and 90 series handguns, including the famous Beretta 92. This allows the Cx4 to use magazines with capacities as large as twenty rounds. The Cx4’s other features include light recoil, ambidextrous controls, a chrome hammer forged barrel for durability, a 16.6-inch long magazine and Picatinny rail for attaching aiming accessories that runs along the top of the receiver. Beretta’s PCC is available in 9mm Luger and .40 Smith & Wesson. The weapon weighs 5.6 pounds unloaded.

CZ Scorpion EVO3 S1 Carbine

The CZ Scorpion EVO3 S1 Carbine shares its name with a older weapon, the Czechoslovakian Vz. 61 Skorpion machine pistol. The small and compact Skorpion—chambered in .380 and taking twenty-round magazines—was popular with Soviet-aligned vehicle crews, rear area service personnel and terrorist groups. The new EVO3 S1 carbine shares the name but otherwise has little in common with the old weapon.

The EVO3 carbine has an overall length of thirty-four inches and features a metal receiver with a fiber-reinforced polymer exterior. It features ambidextrous controls. The barrel is 16.2 inches, cold hammer forged and is factory installed with a compensating muzzle break or faux suppressor. The ½-28 threads allow user installation of a third-party muzzle brake, compensator or suppressor. CZ’s pistol caliber carbine has a MLOK-compatible handguard for attaching weapon accessories, including lights and lasers.

Kel-Tec Sub-2000

One of the more unorthodox-looking weapons on the market is the Kel-Tec Sub-2000 carbine. Like the Cx4, the Sub-2000 looks like a pistol with an elongated barrel and shoulder stock, with a magazine well in the grip. It also features Picatinny accessory rails above and below the barrel.

Kel-Tec’s offering differs in having a specific talent: folding down for compact storage. By rotating the barrel upwards and back, the Sub-2000 essentially folds over onto itself for an overall length of just sixteen inches and a height of seven inches. Once in the compact configuration, the carbine can be secured that way with a built-in lock and key system.

The Sub-2000, like other weapons on this list, has a 16.25-inch barrel. Thanks to a skeletal, minimalist configuration the weapon weighs just 4.25 pounds. The weapon comes in both 9mm Luger and .40 Smith & Wesson variants, and furthermore can be ordered to accept Glock 17, 19, 22, 23, Smith & Wesson M&P, Sig Sauer P226, and Beretta 92 or 96 magazines.

Heckler & Koch USC 45

German gunmaker Heckler & Koch tends to place restrictions on its sale of its paramilitary and military-style long guns. The H&K USC 45, the civilian version of the UMP 45 submachine gun, is one such weapon that is once again back on the American market.

The UMP45 submachine gun was designed to complement the world-famous MP5 submachine gun in Heckler & Koch’s product line. The UMP is a newer design meant to take greater advantage of modern materials—particularly polymers—resulting in a weapon that is lighter than the MP5 yet capable of handling heavier, higher recoil calibers. The UMP is a blowback submachine gun and is available in 9mm, .40 Smith & Wesson and .45 ACP versions.

The civilian USC 45 is available in .45 ACP and has a cold hammer forged sixteen-inch barrel, ambidextrous controls and large trigger well for use with gloves. It has a fixed webbed stock, accepts ten-round magazines and includes a weaver rail for attaching accessories.

Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national security writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in the Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring and the Daily Beast. In 2009 he cofounded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch. You can follow him on Twitter: @KyleMizokami.

This article first appeared in 2018.

Image: Heckler & Koch

Charlie Gao

Security, Europe

Could it make it into 007's arsenal?

Here's What You Need to Remember: Detachment A was about as close to a real “James Bond” unit as it got in the Cold War military.

While the most famous product of Carl Walther GmbH in fiction is the PPK pistol used by James Bond, Walther actually made a line of submachine guns that were the weapon of choice of real covert operatives during the Cold War. The Walther Maschinenpistole (MP) line—in either the MP Lang (MPL) or MP Kurz (MPK) format—was used by numerous police agencies, special forces units, and counterterror teams during the Cold War, due to its compact yet controllable design, accuracy and light weight. But what made the Walther MP the best of its time? Why did later SMGs like the H&K MP5 replace it?

The operating mechanism of the Walther MPs is fairly conventional. Like most submachine guns of the WWII era, it is an open bolt blowback design, meaning that upon pulling the trigger the bolt would move forwards, strip a round from the magazine, chamber it, then fire. Unlike the older guns, the Walther MP uses an interesting layout where the majority of the bolt mass is contained within a tube above the barrel, reciprocating above it with a little blocky protrusion under the main cylindrical bolt mass that handled feeding, firing and extracting the cartridge with the actual bolt face. The result of placing this heavy bolt above the barrel was that recoil and muzzle climb was reduced versus other designs, and the gun was allowed to be much more compact. It also featured other ergonomic improvements like a selector/safety (including a semi-automatic mode) that could be easily actuated by the thumb, and a left-side cocking handle making it easy for an operator to cock it after an empty reload. Sights were simple but adequate, one aperture sight for long-range shooting, and one post and notch sight for close-range work. Rounding out the features of the Walther MP was a simple but sturdy folding stock, a brisk yet controllable rate of fire at 550 rounds per minute, and light weight (6.17 lbs for an MPK, compared to 7.1 lbs for a WWII Sten Mk. II or 8.75 lbs for an MP40).

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This combination of features made the Walther MP, specifically the MPK, extremely attractive for covert police and military units worldwide. 1st SFOD “Delta Force” used Walther MPKs, notably during Operation Eagle Claw, the failed Iranian hostage rescue attempt and during training during the 1970s. The other unit that participated in the raid, Detachment A, who managed to infiltrate Iran prior to the failed heliborne assault, also used Walther MPKs. Detachment A was about as close to a real “James Bond” unit as it got in the Cold War military, in the combination of fieldcraft, direct action and surveillance skills. Members of the detachment often operated in plain clothes, assisting the police in busting criminals that crossed the Berlin border. In the event of war, they would attempt to infiltrate East Berlin, possibly by means of underground, water-filled tunnels. On such missions, the MPK was the weapon of choice. German Navy units (Kampfschwimmer) tasked with similar missions of underwater sabotage and infiltration in the waterways of Germany during the Cold War also preferred the MPK. German police units also used them, notably during the 1972 Munich hostage crisis. While it was not a big success on the export market, it also found favor in the Republic of South Africa, arming the Special Task Force of the South African Police Service under the name HMK. MPKs also served in small numbers in various other militaries.

While the MPK was replaced in service in almost every unit listed above by the H&K MP5, the Walther was known to have some advantages over the MP5. James Stejskal, a Detachment A veteran, described the MPK as being more reliable in dirty and dusty conditions than the MP5. However, the MP5 edged out the MPK on accuracy, likely due to the MP5 being a closed bolt design. In the end, the MP5 is very similar on many design features to the MPK, both use left side cocking handles, have ergonomic thumb selectors, and make use of aperture sights. The Walther MP ended its production run in 1980, having been superseded by the MP5.

Charlie Gao studied political and computer science at Grinnell College and is a frequent commentator on defense and national-security issues.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

James Clark

Security,

Scavenger 6 is designed to solve a specific problem that could arise in a post-apocalyptic situation: Ammo.

Here's What You Need to Know: Let’s hope the apocalypse doesn’t come before this rifle goes on sale.

In a post-apocalyptic scenario where survival is dependent upon scavenging resources, it pays to be prepared. That’s the thinking behind Scavenger 6, a new rifle that can fire 21 different calibers of ammunition.

Though rifle hardly seems a fitting term. It looks like a cross between a .44 Magnum and an M1A1 carbine, and the crazy thing is that’s not inaccurate.

Scavenger 6 was designed and created by Air Force veteran Tim Ralston, who rose to prominence as an inventor and survivalist after appearing on the National Geographic Channel’s “Doomsday Preppers,” a reality television show about post-apocalyptic scenarios and survival planning.

The rifle can fire 21 different calibers of ammunition just by switching out the cylinder barrel, referred to as a CB. However, Ralston notes that if there’s a specific caliber you want, it can be custom ordered, though there are some exceptions: No .50-cal ammo, guys, don’t be ridiculous.

“Because the cylinder and barrel are one, I can get really creative about boring out the cylinder to whatever I want,” explained Ralston.

Scavenger 6 has three multi-caliber CBs, which fire six different rounds — one of each. The multi-caliber CBs are designed to fulfill three unique roles. There’s a hunting CB, which lets you fire ammunition like .223 and .308; a battle CB, which chambers 5.56 and .308, among others; and a survival CB, which is designed to fire ammunition you’re most likely to find lying around.

According to Ralston, Scavenger 6 is designed to solve a specific problem that could arise in a post-apocalyptic situation: Ammo.

“Ammo’s going to be the number-one-sought-after commodity in a post-apocalyptic scenario,” Ralston explained to Task & Purpose.

Fortunately, the world’s not ending just yet, but that doesn’t mean Scavenger 6 isn’t useful.

In addition to the multi-caliber CBs, the rifle comes with standard CBs that are tailored to a specific caliber and can chamber six rounds of that size. So, say, for example, you’re a military aviator and you want a backup weapon in case you’re ever shot down behind enemy lines, you could get a CB that fires 5.56, one that fires 9mm, and another that fires 7.62. You can also customize Scavenger 6 for specific purposes. If you’re headed deep into the wilderness, you may want a .44 Magnum for putting down large animals that pose a threat, as well as a .22 for hunting smaller animals for food.

On top of firing 21 calibers with one weapon system, Scavenger 6 can mount a scope, a foregrip, and has a folding buttstock. Ralston also has plans to add a mount for a strobe light and a laser on the foregrip.

The weapon is in its final stages, with the finished product expected mid-October. Ralston says he plans to officially put Scavenger 6 on the market by January 2017.

Let’s just hope the apocalypse doesn’t come before it goes on sale.

This article by James Clark originally appeared at Task & Purpose. Follow Task & Purpose on Twitter.

This article first appeared in 2016.

Image: Flickr

TNI Staff

Security, Asia

Beware.

Here's What You Need to Remember: The UFD also has a covert counterpart that trains infiltrators and attempts to sow dissent and chaos in the South. “The 225th Bureau is responsible for training agents to infiltrate South Korea and establishing underground political parties focused on fomenting unrest and revolution,” the Pentagon report states. North Korean intelligence apparatus is one of Pyongyang’s strong suites. Indeed, Pyongyang’s security services have demonstrated their ability to strike far from home as was shown during the assassination of Kim Jong-Nam—elder half-brother to the North Korean despot—in Malaysia. The Kim regime’s intelligence apparatus is ruthless and effective and could be used to good effect during any conflict on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea maintains an extensive intelligence collection and security apparatus—as might be expected of a totalitarian regime such as the so-called Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Pyongyang maintains two main agencies—one focused on external intelligence collection and clandestine operations and another focused on counterintelligence. There are also two smaller organizations dedicated solely to infiltrating South Korea. “North Korean intelligence and security services collect political, military, economic, and technical information through open-source, human intelligence, cyber, and signals intelligence capabilities,” reads a Pentagon report to Congress about Pyongyang’s expected capabilities in 2015. “North Korea’s primary intelligence collection targets remain South Korea, the United States, and Japan.”

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North Korea’s primary external intelligence agency is the Reconnaissance General Bureau—which seems to be modeled on the Soviet/Russian GRU military intelligence agency. “The Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB) is North Korea’s primary foreign intelligence service, responsible for collection and clandestine operations,” the Pentagon report reads. “The RGB is comprised of six bureaus with compartmented functions including operations, reconnaissance, technology and cyber, overseas intelligence, interKorean talks, and service support.”

North Korea’s internal security agency—though it might have some foreign intelligence functions too—is the Ministry of State Security. Not coincidentally, it shares the same name as the Soviet Union’s Stalinist-era Ministry of State Security—Ministerstvo Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti in Russian—the MGB. Indeed, the North Korean agency was modeled on the Soviet-era organization.

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“The Ministry of State Security (MSS) is North Korea’s primary counterintelligence service and is an autonomous agency of the North Korean government reporting directly to Kim Jong Un,” the Pentagon report states. “The MSS is responsible for operating North Korean prison camps, investigating cases of domestic espionage, repatriating defectors, and conducting overseas counterespionage activities in North Korea’s foreign missions.”

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North Korea also maintains two other units specifically designed to infiltrate the South. One is overt, while the other group is covert. “The United Front Department (UFD) overtly attempts to establish pro-North Korean groups in South Korea such as the Korean Asia-Pacific Committee and the Ethnic Reconciliation Council,” the report states. “The UFD is also the primary department involved in managing inter-Korean dialogue and North Korea’s policy toward South Korea.”

The UFD also has a covert counterpart that trains infiltrators and attempts to sow dissent and chaos in the South. “The 225th Bureau is responsible for training agents to infiltrate South Korea and establishing underground political parties focused on fomenting unrest and revolution,” the Pentagon report states.

North Korean intelligence apparatus is one of Pyongyang’s strong suites. Indeed, Pyongyang’s security services have demonstrated their ability to strike far from home as was shown during the assassination of Kim Jong-Nam—elder half-brother to the North Korean despot—in Malaysia. The Kim regime’s intelligence apparatus is ruthless and effective and could be used to good effect during any conflict on the Korean peninsula.

This first appeared several years ago and is being reposted due to reader interest. 

Image: Reuters.