*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. A couple months ago, The Atlantic magazine signed up jazz musician Jon Batiste to draw ears to their new podcast. Their bonus was a masterclass on military strategy. It was an inspired choice to draft New Orleans-native Batiste, who currently…
*Note: This essay was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette print edition on September 4, 2017. It can also be found online here. Sometimes, police must shoot to keep the peace. When used effectively, this results in safer cities. When done wrongfully, it inflames society. The question is how police can best wield deadly force. The 2015…
*Note: This essay was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette print edition on August 30, 2017. It can also be found online here. I’m a veteran and I belong on a university campus. Both today, as a dissertation student, and someday, as a professor. Last week a vocal minority calling itself the “Social Justice Collective,” in an…
*Note: This essay was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette print edition on August 27, 2017. It can also be found online here. If value is that which is unique and useful, then the Rockies are Colorado’s rarest riches. I learned this the hard way over the past week while part of a long distance trail running…
*Note: This essay was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette print edition on August 20, 2017. It can also be found online here. Tomorrow, just before noon, the sun will disappear. Well, almost. Locally, the partial solar eclipse begins at 10:23 a.m.; at the 11:47 a.m. peak, the moon will cover 91 percent of the sun; and…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. Yes, you read that right. The West’s roaring lion, the British Bulldog, he of “blood, toil, tears, and sweat”—Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill—“customarily wore underwear made of pale pink silk.” We’ll come back to that later. I was recently asked to…
*Note: This essay was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette print edition on August 6, 2017. It can also be found online here. America is an angry place these days. Politics burn hot on both ends; cable news stokes the fire. Families choose sides, dividing the closest bonds. Arguments abound, and at times, that spirit of animosity…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. “Be strong enough to know when you are weak,” Gen. Douglas MacArthur once advised. But what matters more is to know how and where you’re vulnerable. During the Cold War, the director of the US Office of Net Assessment, Andrew…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. A few years ago, I showed a senior officer a draft strategy. He looked at it, and then looked at me with a Christmas orphan’s unsatisfied disappointment: “We need to more clearly explain our ends, ways, means analysis,” he said,…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the (Australian) Lowy Institute’s commentary and analysis site – The Interpreter. The recent news that two-thirds of United Nations member states negotiated a treaty that bans nuclear weapons was undoubtedly met with enthusiasm in much of New Zealand, which reportedly had a leading role in shepherding the talks…