Articles by: Bradley Peniston

Timely doctrine

TO THE ARMY, for the new FM 3-0 Operations Field Manual, a welcome capstone doctrine document that is long on common sense and thankfully short on acronyms and “Army talk.” This is …

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0 commentsApril 1, 2008Features

Hope and skepticism

Iraqis at home and displaced weigh changes in Baghdad

Last April, this column described initial responses by Iraqi bloggers to the “surge” of American troops in their country. Writing from shattered Baghdad …

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0 commentsApril 1, 2008Features

Contending with CHINA

The Defense Department’s new China Military Power Report, released in March, portrays China as a rising military power, but one whose intentions are unclear. Uncertainty over China’s future course and how that …

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0 commentsApril 1, 2008Features

The fight for friends

U.S. national strategy should refocus from military operations to intelligence

Polls show that most non-Kurdish Iraqis blame the U.S. for the condition of their country and believe that their situations will improve …

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0 commentsApril 1, 2008Features

Hedging strategies

UCAVs, budgets and improbable threats

Unmanned air vehicle development has sharply accelerated in recent years principally because UAVs can overcome a major shortcoming of manned aircraft — limited persistence — while offering …

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0 commentsApril 1, 2008Features

Cold wars at sea

It might be tempting to dismiss the U.S. Navy’s potential focus on China as a passing fad — part of the now-familiar phenomena of “China fever.” Another perspective holds that this focus …

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0 commentsApril 1, 2008Features

Pumping up the numbers

It was after the phone call from their boss, the secretary of defense, that the two most senior leaders of the Air Force clarified their service’s position.

“The Air Force wholeheartedly supports …

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0 commentsApril 1, 2008Features

Reshaping the Pentagon

In this two-part call for a radically new approach to the U.S. national security system, Frank Hoffman makes the case that it’s not dollars the Pentagon lacks; it’s strategic thinking about how …

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0 commentsMarch 1, 2008Features

Strategic security spending

In a speech at Kansas State University in November, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates noted that, “Four times in the last century the United States has come to the end of a …

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0 commentsMarch 1, 2008Features

Request for proposals

A new congressional committee is welcoming ideas for restructuring the agencies that are in charge of our national security. The Panel on Roles and Missions is a bipartisan group of seven House …

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0 commentsMarch 1, 2008Features