Mike Innes and friends have a new project that will be of interest to KoW readers – Current Intelligence (formerly the blog at the CTLab) is branching out on its own in online magazine format. KoW’s own Tim Stevens is involved too as Associate Editor – and I’m going to be involved too, in some way shape or form, inshallah…. (just don’t tell my wife).

Anyway, take a look, and let Mike know what you think….

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I’m just thumbing through The Prince, looking at the great man’s take on psychology. It’s hard to read without thinking of present pickles, that being Machiavelli’s intention, of course. He writes:

A prince who does not understand warfare, as well as the other misfortunes he invites, cannot be respected by his soldiers or place any trust in them.

That reminded me of the Telegraph’s recent article featuring some blunt remarks from Sir Graeme Lamb:

In his speech, Sir Graeme said that politicians and the Civil Service bore “considerable blame” for the decline of the military. He said that the Iraq conflict had “tarnished” Britain’s standing and, until recently, Afghanistan had been “stumbling towards failure”. [...] He warned that the Armed Forces were “clearly in decline” and were increasingly seen as “irrelevant” by the public and politicians.

Mind you, it sounds like he wasn’t convinced that his military colleagues much understand war either. Here’s that quote:

We in uniform, the Armed Forces of this nation, are at fault for failing to recognise the changing character of the threats we face and then to do our duty and to set our store by the defence of this realm: all in all a somewhat damning indictment.

Who does understand war, then? Looks like it’s just us and Sir Graeme. Glad I’m not the person who passed along those remarks. I’d be lying very low indeed if I were. Machiavelli had one or two things to say on that too…

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Dear Abby: My girlfriend is a circus fat lady and she’s hankering after Argentine beef. What’s a skinny boy to do?

by David Betz 5 March 2010

As have many Brits these days I’ve been thinking about what a lot reckon is a rather one-sided US-UK relationship in the context of the latest flare-up between Argentina and Britain over the Falklands. Now I think it is worthwhile reminding ourselves of a few things before going on:

I can barely conceive of the Argentines invading and if they [...]

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No Cyberwar, Says White House Official

by Tim Stevens 5 March 2010

There’s a lot more going on behind the scenes, of course, but White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt has this week done the world a big favour by deflating the rhetoric of cyberwar being perpetrated by certain elements of the US security community.
Last weekend, Mike McConnell, ex-Director of National Intelligence, and currently vice-president of Booz [...]

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Curtailing State Power(?)

by Rob Dover 4 March 2010

For those of us paid to stand at the front of rooms to lecture on the international system and ’security studies’ (broadly defined), one of the classic little intractables is state power vs the law. One of the things that separates ‘us’ from ‘them’ is, of course, adherence to the rule of law. Everyone is taught this, [...]

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More cognitive challenges of war – LBJ and Vietnam

by Kenneth Payne 4 March 2010

I’ve just enjoyed reading David’s recent post on Vietnam. It struck a chord (though as a reformed economist, I can’t abide rational choice models). My question – did the senior civilians, leave alone the military, properly understand the concept of operations needed for Vietnam? I suspect not. Here’s Robert McNamara, writing in his memoir that [...]

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Yazzie †

by Thomas Rid 2 March 2010

National Public Radio has some extraordinary coverage of the Marjah offensive.
Lance Corporal Alejandro Yazzie, a combat engineer from Rock Point, Arizona, was killed in February by Taliban gunfire. Yazzie, of the Navajo nation, served with U.S. Marines from India Company of the 3rd Battalion, 6th Regiment. And the firefight in which he was killed was broadcast on [...]

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Note to Readers

by Thomas Rid 2 March 2010

KoW’s readership is steadily increasing, particularly since the design change in January. And more and more readers are contributing to the debate by leaving comments. That has generated some great discussions – theoretical, practical, and even political – where scholars, staffers, and soldiers mingle. It will not come as a surprise to you that the posts with the best [...]

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Bad COIN Wins Votes (apparently)

by David Ucko 1 March 2010

Jonathan D. Caverley has quite an interesting piece on Vietnam and what it really says about counterinsurgency in the latest issue of International Security. Consider this another sequel to Andrew Krepinevich’s study, The Army and Vietnam. Krepinevich made the argument that ‘Big Army’ was unable and unwilling to adapt to the operational realities of counterinsurgency [...]

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Europeanized defence – almost literally nothing new to report

by Rob Dover 1 March 2010

Last week the BBC’s flagship news programme ‘Newsnight’ held a defence special – it is probably still available online. I was invited on to give a Europeanization perspective, but couldn’t make it for a series of incredibly banal and prosaic reasons (due apologies to my university and any impact points I’ve squandered to childcare)… Anyhow, [...]

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