WRITER PROFILE
Casey Brunelle is a security and intelligence consultant with extensive experience in both the public and private sectors, specializing in counterterrorism, public safety, and geopolitics. He is a strategic advisor to the International Airport Watch Association, a not-for-profit community policing and crime prevention program enhancing aviation security around airports.
Articles by this writer
Even though Israeli border police and transportation officials strongly discourage travel to the West Bank, travelling in an around the area was an incredible cultural adventure.
Whether we like it or not, systemic relations, transactions, and clashes between people and polities across the globe rarely have the consideration to pause for our convenience (or global pandemics). One’s understanding of conflict must continually be challenged in order to be relevant when it is needed most. Through a historical evaluation of the foreign policy objectives of the three major pre-Islamic iterations of Iranian dominance, this essay concludes that many of the historical lessons can be accurately applied today.
Since its 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic of Iran has garnered a reputation among global powers as the model of a so-called “rogue nation” or a “pariah state.” Orchestrating a range of covert actions in the Middle East, from propping up Shia militia groups in Iraq and funding Hezbollah to allegedly bombing foreign oil assets in the Persian Gulf and clandestinely developing a nuclear capability, the ayatollahs have committed themselves to a campaign frequently labelled as bombastic and illogical, serving only to push Iran further away from international acceptance. This paper argues that such strategic and operational measures are driven neither by political shortsightedness nor revolutionary fanaticism, but rather are a calculated policy that seeks to reassert Iran as a regional powerbroker capable of unilaterally determining events in this volatile crossroads of the world, just like its Persian forebearers of classical antiquity. Through a historical evaluation of the foreign policy objectives of the three major pre-Islamic iterations of Iranian dominance – the Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sassanid empires – this essay concludes that many of the historical precedents of these ancient states mirror that of the modern Islamic Republic, and that the same lessons of their respective formations and demises can be accurately applied to the “Iran Question” today.
The Air Mobility Training Centre is one of the most advanced and innovative facilities in the world, and is located at CFB Trenton.
From all facets across the political spectrum, Donald Trump has been described as both the best and worst thing to happen to U.S. politics.
WWII Spitfire and Hurricane pilot epitomizes the dedication and humility of wartime service.
To state that tensions between Russia and NATO have risen markedly in the last several years does little to improve understanding and insight of political realities.
History is replete with examples of brilliant military deception at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels, alike. Can lessons be applied today?
The recent Republican debate began with a quote from George Washington: “truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains taken to bring it to light.”
The recent Paris attacks reminds the world once again of the very real and evolving threat of militant extremism both at home and abroad.
Approximately 600 Canadian Soldiers from 33 Canadian Brigade Group participated in this year's training event for maintaining and honing both individual and group skills at the tactical and operational levels.
Canada's Army helps government workers and interested members of the defence community get a little better understanding of a soldier's lifestyle.
