Public Diplomacy From Haiti Wears Combat Boots

My latest article over at the United States Naval Institute blog.

CCJO and Joint Maritime Operations

The following contribution from Captain Victor Addison, OPNAV N51 Advanced Concepts, and comes as a response to the discussions on Information Dissemination regarding the Capstone Concept for Joint Operations (CCJO) Version 3.0 in the context of Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower.

Captain Addison began the conversation with his analysis of the CCJO and the Navy with his January 2010 Proceedings article You Can't Always Give What You Want available to Naval Institute subscribers.

I appreciate the spirited discussion on CCJO led by Galrahn and Prof. Rubel (also here, here, here, and here). To clarify two things about my article, I'd like to point out the following: 1) My intent was to examine Navy support to joint force objectives in our expected operating environment (as defined by the NDS, CCJO and JOE) and consider issues related to readiness, training, and ops. With the exception of highlighting the virtues of multimission ships, I am not advancing any particular force structure argument. 2) My reference to sea control as being part of our particular service dialect means that this is a fundamental capability (often referred to in varying degrees as maritime superiority, supremacy, or dominance) that the joint force needs the Navy to provide. JFCOM's stated intent in providing a capstone concept is that service concepts can be developed to complement it. This is why we don't see a discussion of sea control in the CCJO.

The extensive review of joint force "activities" by Galrahn highlights a potential point for consideration in the next CCJO rev. Much of the recent effort to assess our strategy in Afghanistan could be distilled down to questions like: "what are our goals?" and "what kind of war are we fighting?" These are not simple questions. Defining the four basic categories of joint force activities as combat, security, engagement, and relief and reconstruction might be technically correct, but this approach leaves a lot to the imagination--particularly since combat is the only activity that is the exclusive purview of DoD as the supported agency. Perhaps CCJO could be a sort of "Rosetta Stone" to translate grand strategy into joint operations by discussing broad categories of "joint force objectives" such as:

• --DEFEATING adversaries (state, state-sponsored, international etc.)
• --SUPPORTING allied/friendly governments and populations
• --DEFENDING the homeland
• --SECURING the global commons and ungoverned spaces

Without objectives, activities (the joint force "toolbox") lack purpose and have no defined end state. For example, "engagement" sounds like a worthwhile activity, but we need to associate this activity with an objective to calibrate our efforts and assess results.

This entry has been cross-posted to the United States Naval Institute Blog.

NWC Review Winter 2010

The Winter 2010 NWC Review is out, and after reading China's Aircraft Carrier Ambitions: An Update (PDF) by Nan Li and Christopher Weuve, Australia's 2009 Defense White Paper: A Maritime Focus for Uncertain Times (PDF) by Jack McCaffrie and Chris Rahman, and Great Britain Gambles with the Royal Navy (PDF) by Professor Geoffrey Till I can vouch the Winter 2010 NWC Review is excellent.

I want to highlight something mentioned by RADM Wisecup in his President's Forum (PDF)

As we did with our participants in the International Sea Power Symposium, I would like to encourage our readers as well as our students to speak up, to speak their minds, to talk about some of these issues that are central to the future of our navy and our nation. It is not enough to be interested; I would go farther, to say you must engage. I say this especially to naval professionals * especially our students, in residence and in our distance education programs, American and international, any service or agency. For you naval officers, it will soon be your navy, and the U.S. Navy does not have all the answers. We must absolutely learn from the experiences of others, and we must learn to collaborate with other navies at national and regional levels, to reach out to others working on things of interest to us. Contribute a paper, write an article together - I have told the students they should show me their published articles or rejection slips by the end of the school year.

Since June 2007 Information Dissemination has grown well beyond levels I ever imagined possible. Consistently included as a blog contribution to CHINFO CLIPs, cited in 2009 in everything from Congressional research to influential academic research papers to the Drudge Report, I am very proud of the way Robert Farley, Chris Van Avery, Bryan McGrath, The Custodian, Feng, and I are able to contribute discussions on Information Dissemination to the issues related to the US Navy, the international maritime environment, and foreign policy discussions related to the maritime domain.

Because of you - all of you both in the US and Internationally - I can say with a great deal of confidence and statistical evidence that Information Dissemination has grown into one of - if not the largest - actively engaged naval communities on the internet. As I have attended events this year in DC, Annapolis, Newport, Monterey, and beyond I have consistently run into naval officers and sailors who are proud to be part of - and sometimes contribute to - the community of ideas and discussions on this blog.

As a professional naval community producing content broadly read online and in various government and industry republications and news aggregators, I want to extend an invitation to any student at the Naval Postgraduate School or Naval War College looking to publish (or even practice publishing) articles related to the various naval and maritime issues covered on this blog. Last year over a dozen naval officers, Professors, and even the NWC's own Dean at the Naval War College Center for Naval Warfare Studies contributed content on various subjects to the blog. I cannot promise the broad audience of institutions like Proceedings Magazine for your ideas, but I can promise a large influential target audience of professionals in the Navy community who are actively engaged in the development and decision process of the US Navy today.

As events unfold and decisions are made in 2010, should the urge to speak out and disseminate ideas on current topics come over you; in the spirit of RADM Wisecup's call I invite those within the Navy and broader community who wish to publish their thoughts to contact me should they desire Information Dissemination or the US Naval Institute Blog to be their forum of choice on a specific topic. As they say at the US Naval Institute - Let us dare to Read, Think, Speak, Write - And Blog!

On Cyber Smart Bombs

My thoughts on how to handle the UAV Drone Video intercept issue, at the USNI Blog.

Hmm

You know, that might be CDR Salamanders most thought provoking post ever.

At the USNI Blog.

CS-21 Two Years Later

SteelJaw Scribe went first on this topic over at the USNI Blog.

Case Study: USS San Jacinto (CG 56) INSURV

For those looking to see more on the USS San Jacinto (CG 56) INSURV, I have posted additional details of the lessons learned report by Captain Cordle and have left my extended thoughts on the subject at the USNI Blog.

ADM Roughead - Two Years as CNO

I left my thoughts regarding ADM Gary Roughead's two year anniversary as CNO over at the USNI Blog.

Random Thoughts...

The only time I met ADMRoughead, folks on his staff suggested I'm an insurgent, and that ID is seen by OPNAV as home to the Navy insurgency.

I am OK with that. I'd be really pleased if NAVSEA saw ID as home of the Navy insurgency, but that is neither here nor there. I'd like to think ID is residence for N3/N5, the internet spot those guys go to for beer and wings - but alas...

We are always open to new ideas.

We try to be objective, will always be honest, and when given the chance shall tell you exactly what we think if asked. The way I see it, if something said by one of the authors on ID isn't disagreeable to everyone who visits at one point or another, we simply aren't contributing much to the discussion.

Thoughts on Ballistic Missile Defense

ID contributor Robert Farley has posted his thoughts on the BMD decision over at the Guardian.

Rob mentions something in his article that I've been thinking about for awhile regarding the Eastern European missile shield floated by the Bush administration. The reaction in Poland and the Czech Republic clearly illustrates that the purpose of the ballistic missiles in those countries was to influence Russia, yet the Bush administration always sold the concept domestically from the political position that the shield protects the US from Iranian ballistic missiles, an obvious disingenuous position. To me, that indicated Bush was sending a signal to Russia that the ballistic missile shield was on the negotiating table for the subject of Iran.

I look at the decision today and see a smart move by Gates, for reasons previously discussed, but believe the politics of this has everything to do with the Obama administration successfully trading the ballistic missile shield deployment to eastern Europe for something in regards to Iran.

France is now 'sure' Iran is working on nukes. Israel is sending every signal it can that it is poised to attack. The IAEA now says Iran has sufficient information to build a bomb. Israel is calling for tough sanctions, and suggests they will attack if tough sanctions aren't applied.

Then there is the immediate effect the timing the Eastern European decision has on Israel. All that equipment heading to Israel for the Juniper Cobra exercise in mid-October is supposedly going to stay put now. That will be useful.

We seem to be heading towards one of two conclusions. Either big time sanctions are applied on Iran, or Israel attacks Iran by the end of the year. Today's actions suggest Russia will support the sanctions, but I guess we will have to wait and see.

As for the non-political side of the BMD events on Thursday, my thoughts are on the USNI Blog: Thinking About Future Ballistic Missile Defense.

The Monster Myths of the CVL Concept

My thoughts on the idea a CVL vs CVN debate even exists over at the USNI Blog.

Good Reading

Stephen M. Carmel, Senior Vice President, Maritime Services, Maersk Line Limited was a keynote speaker to the USNI/AFCEA Joint War Fighting Conference in Virginia Beach, VA. on the morning of May 14, 2008. I was there, and one thing that can be said about Mr. Carmel is that he can send zingers into the crowd, but he talks fast enough that as your mind is processing it, another one comes shooting out.

The presentation was fantastic, the content was rich, and when it was over I got in line right behind RADM Jay Cohen (ret) to introduce myself, but more importantly, to ask for a transcript of his presentation.

This speech was superbly delivered, over 7500 words and unless war breaks out in North Korea over the weekend, will probably be one of the more interesting things you will read today. In the Q&A after the speech, Mr. Carmel admitted that many of the facts come from the statistical and business research conducted by Maersk.

Enjoy!

Latest Article on the USNI Blog

My latest article on the USNI Blog: Seek Goals, Not Conditional Goals in Strategy.

Joint Warfighting Conference 2009

Still running around the Joint Warfighter Conference 2009 in Virginia Beach today, and so far the two days have been interesting. I wrote a few day 1 thoughts yesterday and posted some thoughts from the morning panel earlier today.

For those interested in highlights, I have seen a few Tweets out there including @USJFCOM, @NavalInstitute, and @signalmag. You can also follow Thomas Barnett who has been doing some live Tweet stuff during the sessions.

Maybe one day I'll do the twitterberry thing, but I have so much nerd in me I'm afraid that would take me off the cliff.

Tough Love for My British Brothers...

Following the failures of the Boer wars Kipling wrote, "Its a difficult thing to admit it, but as a grown-up nation we should; we’ve had a hell of a beating, it will do us no end of good." Is there a Kipling in Great Britain today? If so, he or she is probably a journalist or blogger, and likely dismissed as a malcontent.

I'm asking the tough question at the USNI Blog today: Was the British military defeated in Iraq?

Early Thoughts From a Long Week

I am still sorting out my notes from a very busy trip. I did a good job filling time, as I hope will be evident when people see just how many stories the trip generates on the blog. It is very interesting meeting so many people in person I had previously only knew because I had traded emails with them. In many ways, I think I am viewed as a novelty. This trip, at least in regards to most of my appointments, it was about what I am doing more than what I am saying. I also managed to stumble through my engagements without revealing any secrets, which I was worried about. I decided it was better to be confident generically, even if it meant sounding arrogant, than to do any demonstrations for free.

Thursday was a busy day, highlighted by meeting two people in particular. First was Mackenzie Eaglen at Heritage, who might be one of the most published yet 'least well known publicly' analysts on naval affairs in the entire think tank community. I had a bit of fun calling her the "13 carrier gal", although at least she makes a better case for her number of carriers than the Navy does! The other interesting person in my meetings that day was LT Anastacia Thorsson of the US Coast Guard, who has the pretty cool official title of "blogger." Drinks with Matt Armstrong and other great but "shall remain anonymous" folks that night was very productive.

My most memorable experience Thursday was morning coffee at 7am in a conference room at CSBA with Bob Work, Dakota Wood, Martin Murphy, and Jan van Tol. Two hours with that bunch and as you might imagine, I was very tuned into everything around me the rest of the day.

There are a number of ways to look at the Congressional hearing Thursday, but I am left with three impressions.

1) Gold plated warships as a fleet constitution strategy is directly aligned with political policy. Want a different shipbuilding strategy, change the political policy first.

2) The House Armed Services Committee is loaded with rookies. Gene Taylor, who I love, had a bad day because he was not ready for Dr. Thompson, who is underpaid and very good at what he does. Rep Taylor and/or Rep Akin tried to do something really smart by putting some fresh faces on the panel, but they were let down in a big way by the Congressional rookies on their subcommittee.

3) I thought the big winner was the Navy.

All of these points, and more, are addressed over at USNI, where I spent all Thursday afternoon (great time). Bill Miller allowed me to take some old Proceedings issues he had laying around, including the 1899 edition with two very interesting articles from the Honorable Theodore Roosevelt. Interesting that his speech printed in that Proceedings could almost be given today without edit.

That night I met with Tal Malven and others who shall remain anonymous. If you don't know, Tal is professor of Naval Architecture at the Naval Academy, and over beers he showed me his model collection of CVN-21 alternatives that didn't make the cut (see picture above). Beer tastes better when you chat with some people, the beer was very good on Thursday night.

Might be of interest to some, but there were Mids out in Annapolis Thursday night until 11pm. New commandant has brought a new policy. I think this is a good change. I was thought it was interesting that Mids never apparently ever go to the naval institute. My impression was there is so much history there available that the mids are either ignorant about, or don't care about.

Friday I ended up being in meetings from 8am to 6pm, all of which were private. My only regret was that dinner with family didn't work out, but I will say one thing. If you ever stay at the Army/Navy club in DC, the library in that hotel is easily one of the best kept secrets in that town. I know, sounds like geek stuff, but don't knock it until you try it.

Saturday was Government 2.0 Camp at Georgetown. Very interesting. I actually found a Navy PAO there, a civilian, who is working with the MSC. The Air Force has a social media strategy which I'll discuss when they release some new stuff this week. There were some other interesting things discussed, but social media in government is a long way from reality.

I realized three things Saturday:

1) Jack Holt is the man.
2) Addressing IT challenges is the long term solution, not the short term problem.
3) The really smart people in the groups have never managed a major government project before, meaning the social media consultants need technical consultants.

I was able to finish Thomas Ricks book The Gamble while on the trip. That is a really damn good book.

Finally, it is interesting to talk about social media as if I'm some sort of evangelist, because I'm really not. I write a blog. I know how to build online communities, but I think social media is only for organizations that know what they want. While I can help a company answer those questions, I can't answer those questions for a company.

A lot of people kept wondering "how do you do it at all hours of the day and night." Uhm, I don't actually... I do wake up in the middle of the night to inspect some scripts that I usually schedule, but I'm not up all night and working all day as it looks. For example, it is 6pm on Sunday and this post is scheduled to run at 6am on Monday. That is why everything looks like it runs in the middle of the night, I schedule it to go at that time. If I send an email to you in the middle of the night, it is because I am up actually doing some work, not blogging (in IT, we do maintenance in the middle of the night so we don't disrupt services during business hours). I don't sleep like normal people, although it still comes in at about 6-7 hours a night like everyone else.

I have tons and tons of stuff, but I also have lots of catch up so it will take a bit to get back to normal.

An American Classic Goes Public

Most people associate the name Samuel P. Huntington with his best selling 1998 book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Even today the book ranks #5 in Amazon's 20th century world history category, and #20 in Amazon's International Relations category.

What you may not know is that Samuel P. Huntington also wrote one of the most influential articles in American Defense Policy history. National Policy and the Transoceanic Navy, published in May of 1954, is one of the most influential strategy articles ever written, and even to this day has influence among most of our national military leadership. The article is a timeless piece that is still often cited in national policy and naval strategy research today, and likely will be for many generations.

In what I believe is a brilliant move by the United States Naval Institute, National Policy and the Transoceanic Navy has been published in its entirety on the US Naval Institute blog, exposing this article to the masses for the first time ever. If you have never read the whole thing, treat yourself. The real value of that article is that much of the material applies as much today as it did in 1954 when it was written.

At Least That Debate is Strategic...

My colleagues at the United States Naval Institute have been reading this Proceedings article (subscription only) and a recent Navy Times article on the FFG-7 upgrade programs overseas, and are debating FFG-7 vs LCS here and here.

The FFG-7 vs LCS debate is a case where reasonable people can disagree, because we are talking about two very different capabilities and two unique ways of strategy towards the littoral. If you are looking for a debate to really boil your blood regarding what could have been, should have been, or perhaps the right question is what the #@&!...

Lets keep it in the SC-21 family and take a serious look at the DDG-1000.

Beware of Hackers in Uniform

When discussing IT security, you have probably heard about "black hat" and "white hat," but have you ever heard of red cell and blue cell?

Discussing the Pirate Fight

I'm trying to get the hang of the USNI Blog, still feeling my way around so I can develop a pattern and some consistency regarding what to write.

My latest column channels the COIN debate discussing complex maritime environments.

It is Always About the Battleship

My latest column is up over at the United States Naval Institute Blog. I attempt to channel Julian Corbet, Bob Work, and Lord Nelson to discredit the myth that the Iowa class battleship is the greatest battleship in US Navy history as part of my never ceasing crusade towards balance in US Navy fleet constitution strategy.

Enjoy!