The Bureaucratization of the Military, Part 3: Corporateness and Bureaucracy
Part 1 of this series introduced Samuel Huntington’s The Soldier and the State and discussed careerism and jobs. Part 2 discussed the declining trust the public has in the military and introduced the nutcracker using Huntington’s two imperative: functional and…
Deterrence and the Interagency Process, Part 1: Deterrence
I came across an interesting article on LinkedIn on deterrence and how the military should be in control of it. I started a comment and midway through; I opened another browser tab to a quick search. When I got back…
Can a Free Republic be a Superpower: Part 2a: Is the US a Superpower?
On the surface, this question seems almost silly. The US has a nuclear arsenal, one of the strongest economies, and outstanding military power. Yet we ran from Afghanistan with our tail between our legs in near total disgrace. We did…
Can a Free Republic be a Superpower? Part 1: Introduction
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the…
Thoughts on Ukraine Part 12: Chinese Interests in the Ukraine Crisis
A 24 September 2021 report from the Center for Economic Security states that China was Ukraine’s largest trading partner. A 25 February VOA report states the Russian invasion places billions of China-Ukraine trade at risk. “In the period from…
Thoughts on Ukraine Part 11: New Equilibrium
Figure New Equilibrium Issues The figure above starts as a section of the New Equilibrium portion of the Conceptual Framework developed in Part 1. I have added elements based on developments over the last week. As the central question…
Thoughts on Ukraine Part 10: Why do the People Fight or Not Fight?
Figure 1 Russian Tank Destroyed in Afghanistan (Left) and Ukrainians Fighting Russians (Right) The part started out differently than it turned out. I was going to contrast the Ukrainian fighting to the Afghan disintegration against the Taliban in 2021…
Thoughts on Ukraine, Part 8: Multi-Domain Operations
Figure Multi-Domain War A story in my morning news feeds got me thinking. Yahoo Finance wrote: “This is in effect a financial war now,” warned Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid. Perhaps Yahoo Finance is not the best source, but…
Thoughts on Ukraine, Part 7: The Joint Corporatist Scenario
Figure Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping pose for a photograph before their talks in Beijing, China. Photograph: Ramil Sitdikov/AP Part 6 laid out a most dangerous scenario and a most likely scenario for the events in Ukraine. This scenario centers…
Thoughts on Ukraine, Part 6: Mutual Destruction?
Figure King Cobra and Python fight to both of their deaths. Source: screen shot from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmrQM3wrXpQ War is pretty stupid when you think about it. Adam Smith, in The Wealth of Nations, showed how nations could trade to their…
