by William S. Lind January 27, 2009 This week marks the birthday of my liege lord and reporting senior, Kaiser Wilhelm II. As usual, I placed a call over my 1918 telephone to offer my felicitations and ask how our poor world looks from the heights of Mount Olympus. This time, my call was routed […]

William S. Lind January 13, 2009 So far, Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip has produced no surprises. On the physical level of war, the IDF is triumphing. The Palestinians are suffering about one hundred people dead for every dead Israeli. To a 2GW military, which is what Israel’s formerly Third Generation army has become, […]

Why do people continue doing stupid things?  Consider the development of weapon systems for the US military:  Chuck Spinney made the cover of Time magazine back in 1983 — that’s 25 years ago — for documenting to Congress that the acquisition system was getting worse at an increasing rate.  Anybody who thinks he was wrong, […]

By the Russians. A primer by retired AF Colonel Dave Shunk, compiled from open source research ((244 KB PDF)). Someday, somewhere, a retired colonel will be compiling one based on our experiences.  My guess is that it won’t look too different from this one.

EULOGY FOR LIEUTENANT GENERAL VICTOR “BRUTE” KRULAK ROBERT CORAM JANUARY 8, 2009 MCAS MIRAMAR SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA WHEN GENERAL CHARLES KRULAK ASKED ME TO BE HERE TODAY HIS INSTRUCTIONS WERE SIMPLE: BE BRIEF OR THE BRUTE WILL COME DOWN AND RIP YOUR HEAD OFF. I BELIEVE THAT TO BE TRUE. SO THIS WILL BE TO […]

No, not the local KGB office, but the next week of the exec. MBA program. We’re having our initial round of meetings tonight and start classes tomorrow. What this means, though, is that posting and comment moderation will be sporadic. By the way, we’re getting a huge amount of spam. If you submit a comment […]

By William S. Lind January 6, 2009 If we look around the world at the prospects for Fourth Generation entities, what does the new year reveal? Regrettably, they seem to face a rosy future. The Israeli assault on Hamas in Gaza will succeed physically, prove a mixed bag mentally and fail on the moral level […]

Dan Ford has a long post on Boyd and the OODA loop over on the Warbird Forum.   He makes some interesting observations on how Boyd’s thinking about the OODA “loop” evolved over the years.  In particular, he documents that Boyd was still describing the OODA “loop” as a cycle as late as 1991.  My […]

by Michael Finley Is the global financial crisis a “bear market rally” in the decline of the state, or its resurgence? I have this question for 4GW theorists.  I haven’t seen it adequately addressed anywhere, and it is of the greatest urgency.  Our understanding of the basic elements available to inform grand strategy turns on […]