Archive for the 'Military Analysis' Category
The United States has focused so closely on conventional warfare in all its forms–land, sea, and air–that it has trouble when forms of warfare that are resolutely unconventional crop up. American weapons, doctrine, and training are unprepared to react quickly to situations that do not fit into the preconceived mindset. Even worse, the [...]
It is a commonplace of analysis–historical and otherwise–to suggest that militaries fight the last war. So commonplace, that it has trickled into analyses of non-military matters, such as Investment banking. The truism is, unfortunately, not particularly true. Rather, militaries prepare to fight the last war that they want to fight. Generals [...]
Suicide rates in the military have jumped over the past few years. The Army has seen the highest rates of suicide in the last 30 years, according to an Associated Press article:
Suicides among U.S. Army troops rose again last year and are at a nearly three-decade high, senior defense officials told The Associated Press [...]
Part I (Army),here
Part II (Air Force) here
The services remain largely stuck in their efforts to transform for the 21st century. The Army, though moving closer towards developing an institutional knowledge of counterinsurgency, remains wedded to purchasing high technology equipment and weapons more suited for large conventional war. The Air Force has attached itself to the [...]
Part I (Army),here
The United States Air Force has been the poster child for avoiding the cold war transition. Perhaps more than any other service, the USAF has insisted on purchasing weapons and promulgating doctrines that would be just as applicable in 1978 as in 2008. The capabilities have changed, but the mind set has not. [...]
Perhaps the most urgent lesson of any war is exactly the need to learn from the conflict. Combat is a harsh teacher but always offers precise tutorials in how, exactly, things can go wrong. Needless to say, Iraq has re-proven that adage. The organizations most eager to learn those lessons are the [...]
Historical Background
Much of the conflict between Russia and Georgia can be explained by looking at a map of the Soviet Union in 1989:
and a map of Russia today:
The end of the Cold War splintered the Soviet Union into numerous different countries. Almost all of them could tell themselves that they were breaking free of [...]
Is an attack on Iran about to happen? A Seymour Hersh article in the New Yorker has spurred a groundswell of speculation. Given the Bush Administration’s near-continuous saber-rattling towards Iran over the past few years and the attractiveness of a ‘wag the dog’ scenario, the prospect seems plausible. Is it possible, [...]
This is a very strange op-ed. Benny Morris, an Israeli historian, essentially argues that unless the Iranian nuclear program is taken out now, the only alternatives will be 1) Israel mounting a pre-emptive nuclear strike against Iran, or 2) a full-scale nuclear exchange between Israel and Iran.
Deterrence will not work, Morris argues, because, unlike [...]
And so the blowback against Petraeus and counterinsurgency in general continues.
The Jamestown Project- Small Tent April 16, 2009 dsilbey
- Votes Have Consequences, or Regionalization (continued) April 14, 2009 dsilbey
- What A Regional Party Looks Like April 7, 2009 dsilbey
- What Defeat Looks Like March 31, 2009 dsilbey
- The Wrong Question March 30, 2009 dsilbey
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