The top tweets were chosen from influencers as tracked by GlobalData’s Influencer Platform, which is based on a scientific process that works on pre-defined parameters. Influencers are selected after a deep analysis of the influencer’s relevance, network strength, engagement, and leading discussions on new and emerging trends.

The most popular tweets on military and security in August 2021: Top five

1. Deborah Haynes’ tweet on NATO declining the UK’s call to support Afghanistan’s military

Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor at Sky News, a British news channel, shared an article on how North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) declined to support the UK’s call to help Afghanistan during the Taliban crisis. The UK called on NATO and its allies to form a coalition and remain in Afghanistan to support the country’s military after the withdrawal of the US troops.

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NATO and its allies, however, declined to participate in a coalition forcing the UK to withdraw its troops. Taliban quickly captured major provinces of Afghanistan once western troops pulled out of the country. Former Army commander General Sir Richard Barrons noted that Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan will increase the risk of terrorist entities being established in the country posing a threat to Europe and other regions, according to the article.

Username: Deborah Haynes

Twitter handle: @haynesdeborah

Likes: 98

Retweets: 36

2. Nicholas Drummond’s tweet on the Bushmaster vehicle

Nicholas Drummond, a defence industry analyst and consultant, shared a tweet from New Zealand Army on the new Bushmaster vehicles entering production. The vehicles will provide a high level of protection making them suitable for deploying for a range of tasks. The vehicles are expected to be delivered to the New Zealand Army in 2022.

Drummond noted that the Special Forces unit of the UK military is already using 24 Bushmaster vehicles. Each Bushmaster vehicle was procured at a cost of £1m ($1.1m) and enables protected mobility for infantry battalions, he added.

Username: Nicholas Drummond

Twitter handle: @nicholadrummond

Likes: 75

Retweets: 7

3. SIPRI’s tweet on global nuclear weapons inventories

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a research institute focused on conflicts, arms control and armaments, shared an article on the decline in the number of estimated nuclear weapons possessed by nine nuclear-armed countries in the world. The nine countries including the US, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea together possessed 13,080 nuclear weapons at the beginning of the year, which is a decline from 13,400 at the beginning of last year.

SIPRI found that despite the decrease in the number of nuclear weapons, the number of nuclear weapons deployed with the operational forces rose to 3,825 in 2021 from 3,720 in 2020. Russia and the US held a majority 2,000 of the nuclear weapons with 50 nuclear warheads deployed at the start of the year. The article noted that the increase in the number of warheads is a cause for concern as the earlier trend of decline in global nuclear arsenals since the end of the cold war seems to have stopped.

Username: SIPRI

Twitter handle: @SIPRIorg

Likes: 32

Retweets: 18

4. Lawrence Freedman’s tweet on the failure of the Afghanistan military after the US withdrawal

Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King’s College London, shared an article on the fragility of the Afghanistan military after the withdrawal of the US troops. The withdrawal of the US army from Afghanistan broke the morale of the Afghan army, which ended up folding without a fight before the Taliban. The article further explained how the crisis in Afghanistan is a result of several missteps made over two decades.

One of the issues highlighted in the article was the Afghanistan government’s decision to build a military force with nationally recruited troops. The decision to recruit nationally was made to avoid any conflicts within the military due to local or regional affiliations. The national recruitment, however, created disciplinary challenges as regional loyalties could not be integrated into the national army, opined the author of the article.

Username: Lawrence Freedman

Twitter handle: @LawDevF

Likes: 30

Retweets: 13

5. Jonathan Beale’s tweet on corruption in Afghanistan’s military

Jonathan Beale, a news reporter at British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the national broadcaster of the UK, shared a thread of tweets by Adrian Weale, a UK-based writer, on the reasons why the Afghanistan army failed amid the Taliban attack despite being trained by the UK and the US.

Weale noted that corruption was one of the main reasons for the fall of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), with many soldiers indulging in illegal selling of weapons and other supplies. Further, many of the soldiers were never paid salaries or given leave leading them to indulge in illegal activities, added Weale.

 

Username: Jonathan Beale

Twitter handle: @bealejonathan

Likes: 21

Retweets: 5