Defense and the National Interest

by William S. Lind
15 December 2008
America’s Defense Meltdown is the title of a new book on military reform, edited by Winslow Wheeler and published by the Center for Defense Information. In it, some of the leading figures from the military reform movement of the 1970’s and ‘80’s update their work and relate it to [...]

Chuck Spinney
10 December 2008
My good friend Pierre Sprey forwarded this amazing quote by Vice Admiral Bill Gortney. Pierre’s comments are in BLUE and Vice Adm Gortney’s comments are in italics. My comments follow and are so marked.
An utterly convincing testimonial, from an expert witness with flawless credentials, regarding the benefits of quality over quantity for [...]

By William S. Lind
November 17, 2008
The arriving Obama administration will be handed not merely a can of worms but a bucket of asps. Somewhere, I suspect the ghost of Herbert Hoover is smiling. The inherited foreign policy problems are no less daunting than the economic mess. But on the latter front, there [...]

Fabius has an interesting post today where he notes that we have tried 16 remedies for our deteriorating financial condition, all of which fall into the “too little, too late” category.  To paraphrase his conclusion, the financial environment is operating inside our OODA loops.  This isn’t anthropomorphism but a shorthand way of saying that financial [...]

For the occasional visitor to DNI who isn’t also reading Fabius Maximus, I suggest a quick trip over to “The Last Opportunity for Effective Action Before Disaster Strikes.” As he points out, the government has tried at least 15 initiatives to contain the escalating financial crisis since it began in December 2006. You [...]

By William S. Lind
September 30, 2008
One way to look at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is to see them as one war with two fronts.  Germany fought two-front wars twice in the 20th century, and it was almost able to prevail because it had the advantage of interior lines.  The German Army could quickly [...]

William S. Lind
August 18, 2008
Despite the recent drop in the price of oil, the world economy is still sailing into troubled waters. The U.S. credit crisis is intensifying and spreading to Britain. Europe is moving toward recession. The international financial system continues to depend on mountains of debt. If the financial panic the Federal Reserve [...]

William S. Lind
August 18, 2008
What interests does the United States have at stake in the war between Russia and Georgia? Only one: that we remain out of it.
It almost passes belief to think that the Bush administration, bogged down in two wars and planning a third (with Iran), might move toward a confrontation with Russia. [...]

By Elaine M. Grossman
Global Security Newswire
WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has declined to formally endorse an interagency “white paper” on nuclear deterrence strategy, Global Security Newswire has learned (see GSN, July 25, 2007).
The roughly 30-page document, which has yet to be publicly released, is intended to expand [...]

is, of course, paved with good intentions. And who has better intentions than the ban-the-bomb crowd?
Carla Anne Robbins has an editorial today in the NYT advocating such a course and lining up impressive supporters:
Two decades later [after Reagan and Gorbachev had floated the idea], a who’s who of the national security establishment - George [...]