Relative landpower roles in terms of space, time, and strategic effect. The Strategic Landpower Task Force is an initiative designed to integrate the individual landpower roles of the Army, Marine Corps, and Special Operations community. Last October, the relevant leadership released a jointly-signed “white paper,” promising to work together to generate commonly held principles to…
Images courtesy of the Royal Society (L) and Zazzle (R). Friday’s Last Word – Pull Pin, Throw Grenade, Run Away: A provocative thought to kick off the weekend… In war, as in the Profession of Arms, two major concepts often collide – the search for truth – and obedience. George Orwell wrote about this indirectly in 1946,…
Image couresy of Wikimedia Commons. Note: I recently received this prompt from a friend working in the New Zealand government – and thought I’d try my own response. If you’re interested in the subject, consider submitting it to the War Council. Hey Matt, a work related question for you. According to open source reporting the Egyptian…
Image courtesy of CNN and House of Charity. Friday’s Last Word – Pull Pin, Throw Grenade, Run Away: A provocative thought to kick off the weekend… How much time do we as a society reflect on the damage we inflict on other societies in war? Any at all? Don’t get me wrong, I’m clearly not…
Image courtesy of BBC News (via Rex Features). **Note: Updated on April 2, 2014. One way of thinking about Nelson Mandela that has been vastly under appreciated is his strategic judgment. This is natural as he’s most famous for bringing together the Rainbow Nation after the fall of an entire way of life. However, he…
Image courtesy of the New York Times. Emile Simpson wrote in his book – War From the Ground Up – about the psychological aspect to warfare (p. 35): “War is a competition to impose meaning on people, as much emotional as rational, in which one’s enemy is usually the key target audience. Defeat is not a ‘verdict’ handed out…
Image was part of slide presentation at War Council on March 7, 2014. **NOTE: What follows are remarks from the War Council panel on the “Crisis in Crimea” on March 7, 2014. In 1939, Churchill quipped, “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Winston wouldn’t –…
This has been a really busy week – we’re sponsoring a panel on Ukraine tomorrow – which means that I’ll be posting remarks over the weekend. So it’s not all bad: a slow week this week means that there will be fresh analysis and commentary for you this coming week! Security Paradox #1: Environment But…
Image of 106 year old Armenian woman protecting her home (1990) courtesy of Historical Times. Friday’s Last Word – Pull Pin, Throw Grenade, Run Away: A provocative thought to kick off the weekend… I’m in a bit of a rush to leave Latvia today, but thought I could get one quick idea off before the…
Image courtesy of Investorstemcell. I’m in Riga, Latvia this week as part of a West Point Department of Military Instruction training team detailed to assist the Latvian National Defence Academy in curriculum development. The team has been here since Sunday, February 23rd, and will depart on Friday, February 28th. As usual with these sorts of things,…