The Guardian released last week declassified documents incriminating the previous British government (Tony Blair’s) of extraordinary rendition and of involvement in torture. Just over a year after President Obama released what are now known as the torture memos, which justified the use of torture in the War on Terror, the new British coalition government decided to shed light on its country’s involvement in similar practices. It was the Binyam Mohammed case which earlier this year ignited the debate on the involvement of the UK in torture and extraordinary rendition. [...]

Last Tuesday saw the first of three conferences take place over lunch, at Eurosatory, in the think tanks’ village, on the roles of new technologies in current and future operations.

Our first guest, Elizabeth Quintana, spoke about a rather unusual, yet challenging, topic: that of green technology. Whilst she reasserted the current discord existing between defence and military forces and the use of greener and environmentally friendly technologies, she also stressed the current over-reliance of many militaries on fossile fuels. However, since the Obama stimulus package a new focus on greener technologies has come to the fore, which could well revolution future operations. Biofuels and synthetic fuels are not only better for the environment but could also protect the lives of many, which are endangered during the transportation of fossile fuel cargos. The US has also developed solar powered UAVs, and a change towards a use of green military technology could well lead the way for a greener use of technologies in the civilian  sector. Though still at the prospective stage today, this could well prove the wave of the future for Western militaries. [...]

Eurosatory’s Think Tank village organised Wednesday last week its second conference on the future of land warfare. A podcast is already available for you to listen to but first here are the broad lines of what was said in the three presentations. [...]