US Navy – From Here to There

Naval War College Review – Today’s decisions about strategy and force planning fundamentally influence future strategy and force posture. A proposed “Strategy and Force Planning Framework” may help planners and strategists ask the right questions, appreciate complex dynamics, and address in a comprehensive way the important factors present in strategic decision making.

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Geopolitics – Regime Change and Its Limits

Foreign Affairs – So far, the Bush administration has shown it would like to resolve its problems with North Korea and Iran the same way it did with Iraq: through regime change. It is easy to see why. But the strategy is unlikely to work, at least not quickly enough. A much broader approach — involving talks, sanctions, and the threat of force — is needed.

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Indian Navy – Navy sails catch winds of diplomacy

The Telegraph – The Indian Navy will deploy its aircraft carrier overseas for a first series of exercises in Southeast Asia this month and will follow it up with joint exercises on Indiaís eastern and western seaboards with the US, French and Russian navies???The navy is emerging as New Delhi’s service of choice to implement policies of military diplomacy. An intensification of exercises with the navies of the West off Indiaís coasts and with those of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia in pursuance of a look-east policy is placing the Indian Navy at the centre of an emerging military diplomatic grid in the Indian Ocean region.
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Military Space – Space-Based Weapons

Naval War College Review – Basing weapons in space might in the short term increase U.S. military capabilities, but their broader, long-term effect would be negative-especially because of likely foreign responses, inherent vulnerabilities, and crisis destabilization. A decision not to deploy weapons in space, and a treaty discouraging other nations from deploying them, would be much more in the national interest.

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Ground Warfare – The Way We Went

Daily Telegraph – A superb recollection of what exactly infantry combat on the Western Front in World War II was really like. Sixty years ago W F Deedes led his British infantry company across Europe. Last month, aged 92, he retraced his steps, reviving memories and recalling old friends. This is his story, told for the first time. Lord Deedes later went on to become the Editor of the Daily Telegraph from 1974-1986 and continues to write for it.

Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3,
Part 4,
and Part 5.
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US Marines – The Uchinanchu Perspective

Marine Corps Gazette – For U.S. military personnel in receipt of orders to an overseas base, getting to know the culture, traditions and customs, and basic survival language skills are some of the obvious and fun things to do. For those en route to bases on Okinawa, Japan, becoming familiar with the sensitivities and politics of local nationals toward those bases is becoming an increasingly important ingredient in the cocktail of do’s and don’ts. Knowing how Okinawans view U.S. military bases (the Uchinachu perspective), and the U.S.-Japan Security Alliance they support, is critical to understanding public reaction and attitudes toward base issues and enables military personnel to become better neighbors.

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