Must-Reads

How to ease the ADIZ pressure | Deterring China | COIN and grand strategy

For all the concern over China’s newly declared Air Defense Identification Zone, it’s just the latest in a series of escalations in the battle for the Diayou/Senkaku Islands. Here’s Mark E. Rosen’s …

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ADIZ, heating up | An 8-boomer fleet? | Launch “codes”

The ADIZ saga continues. China sends its own military jets up to check on U.S. and Japanese planes flying through the newly declared Air Defense Identification Zone over the East China Sea. …

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ADIZ, all the time | A new Washington Conference | Gaming the future Army

As Robert Farley tweeted, “An entire book on diplomatic messaging could be devoted to the ADIZ/B-52 incident.” Here’s the piece you need to read: Rory Medcalf (“it is important to be clear …

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Flaws in ‘Personnel’ | What is al Qaeda now? | Army’s tough choices

Jonathan Rue applauds Andrew Tilghman’s attempt to cast a critical eye on DoD leaders’ claims about “unsustainable personnel costs,” but says the article has several major flaws. (War On The Rocks)

On …

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Iranian deal | China’s tailored coersion | Still ‘Eating us alive’?

The weekend’s big news was the late-night negotiations that led to a six-month deal that, essentially, relaxes sanctions on Iran in exchange for a six-month moratorium on uranium enrichment. The deal drew …

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Army warms to cellphones | Acquisition reform, take 27 | UCLASS, up in the air

At the Army’s Senior Leader Seminar, frustrated generals were talking openly about moving more battlefield communications from DoD networks to commercial ones. Besides availability and reliability, security has been the main bugaboo. …

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Art of the possible | WOTR picks winners | AirSea Battle must-reads

The Pentagon is taking a hard look at the size of its future force, Defense News reports: DepSecDef Ash Carter is leading a “base force” review, the first since the early 1990s. …

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When carriers no longer trump | Fighting over COIN | Imagining a new A-10

What happens when a carrier strike group is no longer the ultimate trump card? Robert Haddick says that puts a big hole in our habitual thinking about crisis management. (War On The …

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Three-Island War | Preserve naval capacity first | Hey, big spenders

Alex Calvo argues that the Marines’ Three-Block War has a seagoing analogue: the Three-Island War. “[At] sea we are clearly observing how China employs a mixture of naval, coastguard / quasi-military, and …

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