Climate change is still a divisive topic and some countries are doing better at addressing it than others. China’s economy depends largely on “dirty energy” and their belligerent nature makes them an easy target for pundits to blame. At least one conservative commentator has facetiously suggested military action to curb their emissions. WAR ROOM welcomes back Pete Helzer as he examines why the United States needs to start taking diplomatic and economic steps to address climate change before it becomes an urgent matter that would require military intervention.
Tag Archives: Defense Management
THE PCS PENALTY AND THE ARMY FAMILY
The types of families that make up the greater U.S. Army are far more diverse than 10-20 years ago. Dual income families are much closer to the norm and unfortunately the Army’s professional military education system and the moves associated with it force significant spouse unemployment. WAR ROOM welcomes back Paul Kearney to propose solutions to the system that aim to improve life at home, increase retention, and in turn maximize talent management.
A CORNERSTONE OF PEACE: WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. ― Desmond Tutu In November 2001, just one month after the United States […]
CHINA, SUSTAINABLE ENERGY AND GREAT POWER COMPETITION
The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) BRI is currently the world’s largest global foreign investment program and has the potential to shape the future of global sustainable energy. In 2018, fossil fuels met 70% of the world’s increasing energy demand, and developing countries accounted for the majority of that demand. Developing states require tremendous amounts of energy to […]
HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT: RADICALS IN THE RANKS
UPDATED: 1450/15 Dec 2020 A BETTER PEACE welcomes Robert Payne to discuss the radicalization of U.S. military members, particularly in the Army. Payne joins podcast editor Ron Granieri in the virtual studio to examine how individual members of the Army are radicalized and what the service and law enforcement need to do to defeat the […]
WANTED: INNOVATION TOOLS FOR AIR FORCE LEADERS
The Air Force may say it values innovation and experimentation, but despite significant efforts and “innovation theater,” we fall short. How do you do more with less? The Air Force, like most organizations, has always had to learn how to operate in an environment with finite resources. Despite a 156.3 billion dollar budget in 2019, […]
HELMAND: TWO YEARS LATER
We taped the curling edges of our makeshift map to the General’s conference room – a holdover from the 2014 drawdown at Camp Bastion – and began to plan. We frantically duct-taped our map together, matching gridlines from adjacent sheets of paper as an image of the snaking Helmand River emerged. Despite the reintroduction of […]
PAST VISIONS OF FUTURE WARS
A BETTER PEACE welcomes Adam Seipp to discuss the world of Cold War literature. Adam’s previous article in our DUSTY SHELVES series reviewed Sir John Hackett’s 1978 best seller, The Third World War: August 1985. Hackett, deemed both the heir to Pat Frank and Neville Shute and also the ancestor of Tom Clancy and so […]
OPIOID MISUSE/ABUSE BY SOLDIERS AND VETERANS OF THE U.S. ARMY
Opioid overdoses affect active duty and reserve component military personnel and military veterans. Every eleven minutes, there is a death from opioid overdose in the United States. Latest data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) indicates that opioids killed nearly 67,000 people in 2018, and 67% of those deaths involved synthetic opioids. Despite receiving […]
SWARM GAMING: REGAINING THE STRATEGIC INNOVATION INITIATIVE (WARGAMING ROOM)
Adversaries will deliberately create situations for which U.S. military leaders have not been educated, trained, or equipped to overcome. The United States’ enemies are smart, dedicated, and determined. They will not attack strengths; they will attack weaknesses at times and places of their choosing and seek to do so in ways for which the DOD […]
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING AND HE’S HERE TO HELP
Facial recognition technology promises to help law enforcement identify and track suspicious individuals ideally revealing bad actors before they can commit acts of violence or other crimes. The more promising facial recognition becomes as a technology however, the louder grow the voices concerned about the potential invasion of privacy that such mass collection could or would […]
IMAGINING OVERMATCH: CRITICAL DOMAINS IN THE NEXT WAR – A WHITEBOARD
As global politics and the international order destabilize, planners, strategists, and warfighters the world over are reminded that the threat of armed, large-scale conflict is a central feature in the histories of states. Recent conflict between China and India in the Galwan Valley and ongoing military buildups in that region testify to this fact. While […]
WOMEN IN PEACE AND SECURITY
On October 31st, 2000, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1325, which reaffirmed “the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peace building, the importance of their equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security, and the need to increase […]
WHAT’S IN A WAR PLAN?
A war plan develops a concept to win a war militarily and politically; it is the detailed ways and means of an overarching strategy. The Department of Defense has no definition of “war plan” according to its own doctrine. There are the Unified Command Plan, campaign plans, theaters of war, and regional theater strategies. There […]
THE GAITHER REPORT: REALITY VS WORST CASE PLANS (DUSTY SHELVES)
As the American national security apparatus again focuses on peer-to-peer combat after thirty years of assumed supremacy on the battlefield, the Gaither Report is vital reading… If you were told that a single falling satellite could destroy your entire home and car without warning, would you consider spending almost 10% of your annual income for […]
THE ECONOMIC DEFENSE CAPITAL FUND: A TOOL FOR THE ECONOMIC VOID
The American model of innovation has long depended on public support and funding through both the national laboratory system and university-based research that American industry has commercialized into products. For the second time in 12 years, the American federal government is likely to respond to a deep recession with massive stimulus spending to lay […]
AN ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE: INNOVATION AND TERRORIST DRONES
In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, characters who increase in wisdom are those who ascend from the cave’s darkness (ignorance, crudeness) to the surface’s daylight (knowledge, sophistication). In early 2018, 13 small drones armed with explosives swarmed the Russian-occupied Hmiemim airbase in Syria. Russian forces accused the United States of launching the attack, citing the […]
NOT YOUR FATHER’S NATIONAL GUARD
The citizen soldiers of the Army’s National Guard component often lead different lives from their active duty counterparts. Geographically tied to their state units, they often live out their entire career in their home states spared of the constant moves the rest of the military endures. Guard units in years past have been overlooked for […]
IT’S WORLD WAR THREE ALL OVER AGAIN (DUSTY SHELVES)
Today, as the United States once more finds itself in a situation of near-peer competition with China and Russia, this four-decade old novel seems relevant once again. Sir John Hackett’s 1978 novel The Third World War was one of the best-selling books of the decade. The retired British General’s fiction debut sold three million copies […]
YOUR HAMBURGER AND NATIONAL SECURITY: VEGANISM, FOOD INSECURITY AND AMERICAN POWER
National security analysts primarily consider external threats before assessing whether or how the nation can and should secure itself. National security experts rarely consider the complexities of the American diet and food systems being tied to United States (U.S.) military readiness and effectiveness. Similarly missed is the link between food insecurity and environmental damage or […]