Tag Archives: strategy

A Joppolo for 21st Century Afghanistan

Posted on 5/23/2010 by Curzon

From Robert D. Kaplan’s groundbreaking piece, Supremacy by Stealth, written in 2003: When I asked Major Paul S. Warren, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, home of the Army’s Special Operations Command, what serves as the model for a civil-affairs officer … Continue reading →

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A better state of peace

Posted on 11/21/2009 by Younghusband

Poised outside of the newly re-enforced capital of Sparta, the Theban general Epaminondas knew that beginning a siege against the city would only wear down his troops who had already campaigned deep into Spartan territory during the mid-winter of 370BC. … Continue reading →

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More on military thinking

Posted on 2/7/2008 by Younghusband

Lots of activity about military thinking on the blogosphere recently. I have already given my two yen “on military thought”:http://cominganarchy.com/2008/01/23/on-military-thought/ and ranted about “military PowerPoint”:http://cominganarchy.com/2008/02/05/present-arms-the-military-and-powerpoint/ skillz, or lack thereof. Our good pal “the strategist”:http://kotare.typepad.com has continued his quest to find … Continue reading →

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On military thought

Posted on 1/23/2008 by Younghusband

Peter the strategist struggles to answer the question “Who and Where are Today’s Military Thinkers?”:http://kotare.typepad.com/thestrategist/2008/01/new-post.html He observes that military thinkers with real military experience, practical or otherwise, seem to be losing out to “today’s military thinkers in universities and think … Continue reading →

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The effects of dropping the bomb

Posted on 11/25/2007 by Younghusband

Chuck Spinney, one of the Boyd Acolytes, discusses the problems of a “strategic bombing campaign on Iran”:http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/spinney_bomb_iran.htm. Though he doesn’t say the words he is criticizing the EBO logic that dates back to “Douhet”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douhet. I think it is a solid … Continue reading →

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Cooking with what you have

Posted on 11/24/2007 by Younghusband

Robert Kaplan follows up his “pre-Patraeus report analysis”:http://cominganarchy.com/2007/09/13/kaplan-re-petraeus/ by widening his bottom-up tribalism theory to include Pakistan, Baluchistan and Afghanistan in his latest article in _The Atlantic_ “It’s the Tribes, Stupid!”:http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200711u/kaplan-democracy: bq. Where democratic governance does not exist, we must … Continue reading →

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Grand strategy

Posted on 11/16/2007 by Younghusband

Is it _prescriptive_ or _descriptive_? In other words, is grand strategy a tangible policy developed by nations? Or is it an abstract tool of analysis imposed by observers?

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The strategy pendulum

Posted on 11/10/2007 by Younghusband

“Lex”:http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/author/lexington-green brought to our attention a couple of criticisms of “Kaplan’s latest article”:http://cominganarchy.com/2007/10/03/america’s-elegant-decline/ in the Atlantic from both “the left”:http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_false_decline_of_the_us_navy and “the right”:http://www.d-n-i.net/lind/lind_10_25_07.htm. I don’t think these criticisms are fair. First of all, I didn’t read the article as a … Continue reading →

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Strategy classics

Posted on 11/1/2007 by Younghusband

In reading “Securing Japan”:http://www.amazon.com/Securing-Japan-Strategy-Cornell-Security/dp/0801446120/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product/105-1906063-6010062 I thought Richard Samuels summed it up quite nicely (pp. 109): bq. There are few truly new ideas about how nations can protect themselves. Each country is armed with its military, its diplomats, its mix of … Continue reading →

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