NOSI is taking a short break and will next update on May 12.

During this time, please consider visiting our related site and downloading the War Studies Primer for an introductory course on the study of war.

Look at slides 2 and 3 in the War Studies Primer for its Table of Contents, and then choose a lecture to read and enjoy.
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Associated Press – The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk sailed into Hong Kong on Monday on its final away-from-home port call five months after being turned away by China.
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Associated Press – U.S. Marines are crossing the sands of southern Afghanistan for the first time in years, providing a boost to a NATO coalition that is growing but still short on manpower.
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New York Times – A critical look at the troubled gestation of the Littoral Combat Ship.
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Virginian Pilot – The Navy will review maintenance and training across the surface fleet after a recent inspection found the Norfolk-based destroyer Stout unfit for sustained combat.
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Defense Technology International – Surprisingly few airframe changes are needed to make Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk into the US Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance System, although the RQ-4N will have a different mission profile than the US Air Force’s RQ-4B.
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Aviation Week – Within three years, the U.S. Navy’s fleet will have fielded the technology for precisely locating small, flying targets. The target set embraces some of the Navy’s latest nightmares, including the next-generation of stealthy – sometimes supersonic – cruise missiles.
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New York Times – The Pentagon has cultivated “military analysts” in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the Bush administrationís wartime performance.
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San Diego Union Tribune – A look at what saved the frigate Samuel B. Roberts when it hit an Iranian mine in the Persian Gulf 20 years ago.
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Foreign Affairs – Even critics of Hugo Ch·vez tend to concede that he has made helping the poor his top priority. But in fact, Ch·vez’s government has not done any more to fight poverty than past Venezuelan governments, and his much-heralded social programs have had little effect. A close look at the evidence reveals just how much Ch·vez’s “revolution” has hurt Venezuela’s economy — and that the poor are hurting most of all.
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Spero – An essay summarizing Robert Kaplan’s keynote address at Foreign Policy Research Instituteís Fourth Annual Partners Brunch.
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Defense Technology International – The Germany navy this week has formally put into service the K-130 Braunschweig corvette, the first of five boats in a new class.
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Armed Forces Journal – A comparison of good risk with bad risk. Successful implementation of the new maritime strategy depends on the Navy leadership seizing the first while mitigating the latter.
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Armed Forces Journal – A questioning of the wisdom of introducing three major new ship platforms (DDG 1000 destroyer, CVN 78 carrier and LCS) at the same time – all based on untested designs. Is this bold new thinking or reckless risk?
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New York Times – Niall Ferguson review’s Philip Bobbitt’s new book, entitled “The Wars for the Twenty-First Century.”
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Defense Technology International – The state of France’s naval air fleet.
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The Times – The Royal Navy, once the scourge of brigands on the high seas, has been told by the Foreign Office not to detain pirates because doing so may breach their human rights.
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The Atlantic – Robert Kaplan writes that Calcutta has been renamed. Now, with investment on the rise, tech companies moving in, and a growing middle class, can it be reborn?
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Reuters – French commandos seized six pirates in Somalia on Friday during a daring helicopter raid launched shortly after the bandits had released the 30-strong crew of a luxury yacht hijacked last week.
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Defense Technology International – The French navy has to recruit 4,000 men and women annually??? and it’s becoming tough.
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