Ten Questions West Point Does Not Ask Cadets – But Should

Image courtesy of Flikr user United States Marine Corps. Note: We’re revisiting some of our most popular material from the past 10 months for our newer readers; this was originally posted May 30, 2014. Enjoy!  At West Point, we often address cadets as “scholar warriors” or “warrior scholars.”  This phrasing suggests that our objective is…

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An Ebola Manifesto for the Military Profession

Image of Camp Funston, Kansas (USA), US Army base, 1918 provided courtesy of Wikipedia.   There are three conclusions for the military profession to be drawn from the present Ebola outbreak: the threat is enormous, but ultimately manageable; the desired ends are currently vastly under resourced; and the profession’s lack of intellectual focus on the…

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On Ebola: Calculating Geostrategic Landpower Requirements

Image courtesy of the New York Times.   In his famous 1998 set of BBC Radio Reith lectures, military historian Sir John Keegan described war as a “protean activity” that “changes form, often unpredictably” like a “disease” that “exhibits the capacity to mutate and mutates fastest in the face of efforts to control or eliminate it.”…

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Anti-Morale: What causes retreat and surrender?

French soldier, circa 1915. Rare color photograph from World War I. Image courtesy of Time magazine.  Instead of writing about the “white flag” of surrender – feats of heroism make for a more enjoyable and standard military affairs subject.  That way we avoid the necessary slog through cowardice; who wants to read about people running away?

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Designing a Shoulder Patch for the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.   I recently came across an interesting story in Captain Harry C. Butcher’s book about his experiences as an aide to General Eisenhower from 1942 to 1945 (My Three Years with Eisenhower). On page 592 and continuing on 593 (diary entry for June 23, 1944), Butcher relates the story behind the…

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