Royal Navy – Royal Navy chief looks to the future with carrier, F-35 programmes

– Flight – The Royal Navy and Fleet Air Arm entered a period of forced transformation 16 months ago, when the UK government approved major cuts to their equipment and personnel structures as part of its Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). However, with a final tranche of about 300 staff cuts having been confirmed in mid-January, the head of the UK’s “senior service” is looking firmly to the future.

Geopolitics / Middle East – Turkey and Iran carve up a ruptured Arab world

– Christian Science Monitor – Martin van Creveld writes that many analysts say the Middle East is the focus of a geopolitical power struggle between the United States and Iran. That misses the primary thread of events – namely, the ongoing soft partition of the Arab republics between Turkey and Iran, with Turkey the stronger power.

Piracy – Seized Pirates in High-Seas Legal Limbo, With No Formula for Trials

– New York Times – C.J. Chivers writes that the many navies involved in counterpiracy patrols off Africa’s northeastern shore have learned the pirates’ habits and sharpened interdiction efforts. Hijackings have declined sharply in the past year. But where interdiction ends, an enduring problem begins: what to do with the pirates that foreign ships detain?