As noted by John Robb, the US Naval Institute’s Rethinking the Future Nature of Conflict & Competition series (previously covered on Coming Anarchy) has a number of very interesting presentations. I recommend listening/watching them all if you can, but for the free-time-challenged, I would highly recommend the Coker speech (and of course the Kaplan).

Professor Christopher Coker, authour of The Future of War, speaks on American and European perspectives of “The Long War.” Undoubtedly Europe and the United States are divided over the execution, and even definition of the Long War. Coker describes the American outlook of being involved in some sort of war that will be long term, but unable to come to grips with how to prosecute that war. The Europeans, on the otherhand, feel they are trying to prevent a conflict from breaking out. They cannot accept the word “war.”

Some of the topics Coker broaches include the typology of Al Qaeda is (he compares them to the anti-globalization movement), prisons and prisoners, where the “front line” is, who “the enemy” is, the subjectivity of risk management, what we don’t know we know, and the roots of the greater context underlying the debate between the US and Europe.

Professor Coker very engaging speaker, who does a good job of intertwining a wide range of topics into the complex debate over the Long War, a debate carried out in the media and academia in an all to often narrow scope. If you need a dose of perspective, listen to it all.

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