*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. The current commander of US Army forces in Europe has a problem. How do you deter Russian aggression – achieve strategic deterrence – when you’ve had several cuts to your available forces? His self-prompted challenge: “We have to figure out…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. “If another Korean War comes,” he said, “when society collapses in the north, it’ll look like Iraq – members of the regime going to ground, starting an insurgency, setting IEDs.” This week I listened to a senior officer game out…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. Strategy is a “bridge,” so sayeth Colin Gray, “because no other idea so well conveys the core function of strategy” which “connects two distinctive entities or phenomena that otherwise would be divided.” Gray then lays a gauntlet, that this metaphor…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. “Killing for Peace is like F**king for Chastity.” I came across this Vietnam War-era anti-war slogan while reading recently. Aside from its obvious shock value, which is considerable (I mean, wow), I wondered about the slogan’s truth. To address this…