In Geopolitics Today - Thursday, August 19th
Canada Eager to Modernise NORAD Together with the US and Algeria Blames Wilfires on Israel, Morocco
Canada Eager to Modernise NORAD Together with the US
Canada and the United States have expressed a joint desire to uphold and modernise the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a combined organisation shared between the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning and air sovereignty protection over Northern America. Military officials from both countries made pledges to invest in a new network of sensors said to be aimed at detecting and tracking ballistic missiles.
The statement commits both countries to work toward the goal of integrating more advanced capabilities in order to “maintain persistent awareness and understanding of potential threats to North America in the aerospace and maritime domains.” Both countries also stated that the modernisation process must ensure NORAD is able to “deter acts of aggression against North America” and “respond to aerospace threats quickly and decisively when required.”
US military officials have expressed a desire for all the sensor data to be integrated in real time so that active personnel are able to interact with information gathered from this vast network of sensors from anywhere on the globe. To get to this point, the military will have to rely on machine learning to process the of data collected by its sensors at a scale humans cannot.
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Algeria Blames Wilfires on Israel, Morocco
Algeria has publicly linked Israel and Morocco with a militia group suspected of being responsible for starting deadly fires which are raging across the country. Algerian officials have suggested the wildfires were the work of arsonists and the president’s office announced the arrest of 22 people suspected of involvement. The statement implicated foreign powers when then stating that the rebel group responsible “gets support and help from foreign parties, particularly Morocco and the Zionist entity.”
The president’s statement indicated that Algerian relations with Morocco will have to be reviewed, and that the Algerian government will pursue an "intensification of security controls on the western borders." with Morocco. As regards Israel, the Algerian government does not even recognise Israel and refers to the country in official statements only as the ‘Zionist entity.’
Algerian relations with Morocco are tense. Just last month, Algeria recalled its ambassador to Morocco after Morocco's envoy to the UN expressed support for separatists in Algeria's Kabylie region. Relations between Algiers and Rabat have been tumultuous for decades, with the countries regularly at odds over the disputed Western Sahara territory. Moroccan King Mohammed VI has offered assistance, but Algeria has yet to publicly respond.
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