One Ring to Rule Them All

I felt rather fortunate to be abroad during the debt debate. But one thought I had while (to get very Tom Friedman-like, listening to Jay-Z and Bun B. talk about their own unique understanding of microeconomics in “Big Pimpin” while moving around the outskirts of Shanghai) was that the current spectacle has largely exposed the 20-year debate over future American grand strategy to be rooted on a fundamentally false assumptions. In fact, one might, as Joseph Fouche often does, compare them to the titular fantasy quest in Lord of the Rings. Why?

To sum it up, we neither understand what grand strategy is nor have realistic expectations of how to make it “work” in our unique domestic political system. 

A Political Economy of Professional Reading

I just received two new books in the mail, most notably Colin S. Gray’s new magnum opus. This, unfortunately, adds to a growing problem: how to allocate reading resources.

The Regime Change Disease ?

My co-blogger Dan Trombly puts his finger on an emerging problem: American strategy and regime change. I’ve highlighted bits that are of special importance for military and intelligence strategists:

“Changing the Game” in Strategy

James Schneider’s book The Structure of Strategic Revolution is one of my favorite books and was a huge influence on my thinking about operational art and the growth of strategy. So I was pleased to see him write an op-ed for Tom Ricks’ blog.

Cyberwar vs. Cyber-Espionage vs. Cybercrime

For the purpose of conceptual clarity, it’s probably best to think of things from this framework. Otherwise we may lose sight of what actually constitute military vs. law enforcement cyber-threats.

Nuclear Warfare as a Forgotten RMA

Soviet military science considered nuclear warfare a military revolution, and I’m inclined to agree. As John Robb once pointed out, it was definitely the biggest revolution in war that (thankfully) never occured. 

Stability Operations and the Theory of Victory

I remain somewhat perennially frustrated with the discussion on COIN. Some of my earlier entries comment on the wide disconnect between what people believe COIN to be (tea-drinking, etc) and what it actually is. But why did that public perception get created?

Welcome to the Thunderdome: Explaining the Genesis of Fear, Honor, and Interest

Consider this the Strategy version of the “gritty reboot.”

We Go To War With The Strategic Culture We Have

A common theme of writings about strategic culture is that the default American strategic culture is deficient in one (or all) of these various ways: