On April 9, 2018, I was privileged to be a panelist at the New America Foundation/Arizona State University Future of War Conference in Washington. Video from the event is available here, and my remarks were subsequently published at JustSecurity.org on April 30, 2018, a selection of which follows and the rest can be read at…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. While driving along the shore of Lake Wanaka on New Zealand’s South Island in September 2011, I saw them for the first time. Black Swans. My wife and I pulled over, jumped out, and spent a half hour with the…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. There are lessons from wars of the past. There are lessons from wars of the present. And there are lessons from wars of the future. MWI Fellow August Cole proves this third point in his exceptional work of short fiction,…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. A few weeks back, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Harvard Professor Steven Pinker triumphantly announced the peace deal between the government of Columbia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC). While positive, this declaration rings hollow as the…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. Pervasive in academia, the perfection of specialization is the enemy of wisdom – by narrowing our curiosity, we limit our learning. Which is why I was thrilled to have received a new old book (1950), by B.H. Liddell Hart, Defence…
Image proudly created by Matt Cavanaugh. *Editor’s Note: A version of this essay will be presented as remarks to the War Council event on May 4, 2015. The panel discussion will be focused on the dominant trend that will shape warfare over the next 20 years. The Continuum of Conflict Why do bad things happen to good people? It’s…
*Note: What follows is the beginning of an essay of mine (“A Very Unequal Dialogue”) on the current state of civil-military relations, which is available in full over at The Best Defense. Tom disagrees with my recent assessment that the recent New America Foundation/Arizona State University Future of War Conference underrepresented the uniformed military, resulting in…
Image created by ML Cavanaugh. There’s only one thing wrong with the New America Foundation’s Future of War Conference – not one participant has skin in the next game. There’s exactly one more NFL player (Donte Stallworth) in attendance than there are likely future combatants. The average audience member is closer to retirement than…
Image courtesy of Foreign Policy; Tengku Bahar/AFP/Getty Images. Friday’s Last Word – Pull Pin, Throw Grenade, Run Away: A provocative thought to kick off the weekend… I think Ambassador Hank Crumpton, formerly of the CIA, deserves great admiration for his service to the country. But having just listened to a speech he gave (titled “A New…
Image courtesy of ForeignPolicy.com. Great thanks to Tom Ricks & his Best Defense blog for allowing me the privilege of entry into his “Future of War” essay context. What follows is a sample, and the rest can be found here. “Though New America is doing great service by leading some much-needed public discussion, the “Future of War” project…