Archive for May, 2010
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
Posted in 2010, academia, authors, book, cognition, COIN, cold war, complex systems, complexity, counterinsurgency, counterintuitive, creativity, economics, education, empire, Evolution, historians, history, ideas, illegal combatants, insurgency, intellectuals, intelligence, islam.insurgency, islamic world, islamist, legitimacy, military, military history, public school, readers, reading, reform, scenario, social science, teaching, terrorism, theory, war | 10 Comments »
Monday, May 17th, 2010
Big Brother on the Make….or perhaps, the take….
Outside of specific and targeted investigational contexts for law enforcement and intelligence, the Federal government really does not need to know what products we buy at the grocery store, what books we buy or check out at the library, the magazines to which we subscribe, our car payments, what kind of food we eat, the websites we visit, how we use our credit cards and where. It’s not actually the government’s business, and presumably, the 4th Amendment indicates they need a compelling interest before they are allowed to snoop.
Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn) is working hard….to make sure the Feds are watching your every move. Unless you are an illegal alien of course.
What passes for Liberalism these days is a strange ideology – American citizens are to be treated as criminals to be kept under continuous government surveillance but if you are a foreigner who enters the country illegally, you should get special dispensations from police questioning. Or unless you are a foreign terrorist overseas or in communication with one. WTF?
Posted in 21st century, America, conspiracy, democratic party, dystopia, freedom, government, IC, intelligence, Liberalism, liberty, Mexico, Oligarchy, politics, reform, Republic, rule-sets, senate, society, state failure, terrorism | 11 Comments »
Sunday, May 16th, 2010
Adam Elkus has an excellent piece that looks at the COIN vs. Raiding debate in Defense Concepts and, while analyzing that, IMHO correctly diagnoses the origin of our policy troubles.
Taking the Offensive: The Utility and Limitations of Raiding (PDF)
What can broadly be considered raiding strategy deserves consideration as an alternative to global counterinsurgency. However, its utility is limited and must be bounded within a broader review of American grand strategy. This paper addresses the utility and limitations of raiding and punitive expeditions. Both raiding and global counterinsurgency are valuable approaches in pursuit of strategic goals but should not be elevated to the centerpiece of national security policy–especially in light of underdetermined grand strategy.
….Even if we could develop a metric for the requisite amount of force to be employed, we would still encounter objections to raiding based on an awareness of political affairs and bureaucratic infighting. Defense pundits discussing proposed strategies seem to implicitly assume that the United States is a state with strong executive planning organs and a political culture capable of digesting sophisticated strategies; a kind of 21st century version of Moltke’s Prussia. Instead, we live in a political culture more aptly chronicled by the creators of South Park.
Posted in 21st century, A.E., academia, America, analytic, COIN, counterinsurgency, defense, DIME, government, insurgency, intellectuals, military, national security, politics, social science, strategy, theory, war | 2 Comments »
Saturday, May 15th, 2010
On a lengthy, analytical, post….hopefully will be up Sunday or monday. Maybe a few quick posts in the interim….
Posted in blogging | Comments Off on Working…..
Thursday, May 13th, 2010
Dr. Thomas P.M. Barnett is not only his own man, he’s his own webmaster.
Having embarked on a major overhaul of his longstanding and very successful blog, which had been steered previously by Critt Jarvis and then Sean Meade, Tom rolled up his sleeves, engaged his creative eye and went “hands-on” and shaped the new look himself ( he is still tinkering with it), an impressive decision given the magnitude of the details involved.
It’s good. I find the redesign to be warmer but still crisp. A much more personal, less “corporate”, look with greater balance between text, visual imagery and negative space. It reflects more of Dr. Barnett’s different interests. Check it out:
Thomas P.M. Barnett’s Globlogization
I also like the long margin Twitter-feed, a nice wrinkle that puts two web 2.0 platforms together well. Much better than a little window plug-in would work in terms of reader attention.
Very nice.
Posted in authors, barnett, blogging, Blogroll, connectivity, critt jarvis, defense, economic determinism, foreign policy, gap, geopolitics, globalization, horizontal thinking, military, military reform, national security, PNM, politics, rule-sets, strategist, strategy, Strategy and War, theory | 5 Comments »
