Here’s another plea to stop misusing words that have perfectly good and useful definitions: Christopher Mewett’s response to Rear Adm. Michael Smith’s article in Proceedings about the rebalance to the Pacific. Writing at War on the Rocks, Mewett takes the director of the CNO’s Strategy and Policy Division (OPNAV N51) to task for his use of “strategy.” (See also: Naval War College professor Milan Vego’s similar plea concerning other terms of the doctrinal art.)
From Defense News’ Aaron Mehta: “Air Force Space Command has released a new white paper laying out its argument for moving towards a new architecture for military space programs. That strategy, known as ‘disaggregation,’ has been promoted for some time by Gen. William Shelton, the head of Space Command. But this document, released Aug. 21, provides the clearest look yet at how the Pentagon views its future space strategy.”
Love him or hate him, David Petraeus gives a good speech. Here’s Frank Hoffman’s take on Petraeus’ August talk at RUSI: “In his speech the retired former Coalition and U.S. commander in both Iraq and Afghanistan draws upon his last decade of service and provides a nicely crafted perspective from his experience and beyond into the future. It is a masterfully crafted talk and a thoughtful look backwards and forwards. He defends ‘the surge’ in Iraq, and calls it a ‘surge of ideas’ more than force. In particular, I liked his strategic lesson learned about cost-benefit analysis before we go to war.” Here’s a link to a full transcript in HTML and PDF.
Warlord’s Quote of the Day
“When you can’t imagine how things are going to change, that doesn’t mean that nothing will change. It means that things will change in ways that are unimaginable.” — Bruce Sterling
Contributed by Matthew Devost, an intelligence professional who is President & CEO of FusionX, a cybersecurity, technology, and risk management company. From a list compiled by the Warlord Loop, a private email forum for national security experts.
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