Category: National Security

National Security – DIME

U.S. First Responders

ARTICLE: Embracing New Role (Baltimore Sun)…Lawrence Korb and Max Bergmann, may 20, 2008

Quietly, and perhaps without fully realizing it, the U.S. military has begun embracing a new, wide-ranging international role that will compel it to intervene in many countries throughout the world. Yet this is a role that virtually every country would support and one that should be widely embraced here as well: the role of global first responder.

Lawrence J. Korb, a former assistant secretary of defense, is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Max A. Bergmann is the deputy policy director at the National Security Network.

Good example on the application of all the elements of national power.

Progress in Iraq – Kurdistan

We Are Making Progress In Iraq, (Wall Street Journal)…Nechirvan Barzani, May 20, 2008, Pg. 21

While the media offers mostly images of violence, and many Americans have grown weary of the war in Iraq, I bring hopeful news to Washington this week as I meet with the administration and members of Congress.

Mr. Barzani is prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq.

Global Peace Index

US And Russia Ranked Among Least Peaceful Nations, by  (Financial Times)…James Blitz

An annual study ranking nations in terms of how peaceful they are has given poor marks to the US and Russia, placing them firmly in the bottom half of a list of 140 states.

The Global Peace Index is drawn up by the Institute for Economics and Peace, an independent think-tank, together with the UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit. It tests each nation against 24 “peacefulness” criteria, including a nation’s relations with its neighbours, arms sales and foreign troop deployments.

 I’m somewhat of a collector of indices .. aim is to find one or more that will provide indicators of progress over time.

U.S. and Libyan Cooperation

Libya, Pentagon On Verge Of Signing Military Cooperation Pact
(Inside The Pentagon)…Fawzia Sheikh, May 15, 2008

The United States is close to signing a memorandum of understanding with the Libyan government that will open the doors to formal military engagement following years of strained relations, according to a senior military official in the Joint Staff.

A success story on the application of Smart power.

The Five Greatest Strategic Threats

Threats to America, Washington Times, May 16, 2008
By Bill Gertz

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich warned in a major speech yesterday that the United States is facing the danger of defeat today similar to Britain in the early days of World War II.

U.S. military, economic and intellectual power is eroding as threats are growing and both Republican and Democrat leaders are deficient, Mr. Gingrich said.

The five “greatest strategic threats” to the country, he said, are China’s rise, a resurgent autocratic Russia, radical Islam, rogue regimes seeking weapons of mass murder, and the growth of an anti-democratic system led by a “bureaucratic international elite.”

The U.S. needs a grand strategy to confront and outmatch all five threats, but noted that “current American efforts are too small, too unimaginative, and too timid.”

“Faced with these large, systemic challenges, the current generation of leaders in both parties are refusing to deal with the scale and the urgency required for continued American prosperity, safety, and freedom,” 

Newt Gingrich is chairman of American Solutions which is defined as
a unique non-partisan organization designed to rise above traditional gridlocked partisanship, to provide real, significant solutions to the most important issues facing our country.

Might want to check out Tom Barnett’s Weblog. Barnett has developed one of the better concepts regarding a U.S. grand strategy.

Could not agree more that systemic, bi-partisan solutions are needed — strategies that are at the heart of  Quality Leadership. .

Air Force Synthetic Fuels – Challenges

Air Force To Perform First Supersonic Flight Using Synthetic Fuel Blend, By Katherine McIntire Peters, GovExec.com, March 18, 2008

A key hurdle for the Air Force and other potential users of synthetic fuel is likely to be the production process itself, which now generates more greenhouse gases than conventional petroleum refining.

The 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, which President Bush signed into law last December, prohibits federal agencies from purchasing alternative fuels that generate more greenhouse gases over the course of their lifecycle than conventional petroleum fuels. Some House lawmakers now want to overturn the provision, contained in section 526, because it could limit Defense Department fuel purchases in the future.

Air Force and DARPA — Energy independence?

Air Force Certifies B-52H Bomber Fleet To Use Synthetic Fuels, Inside The Air Force, — John Liang, August 10, 2007, Pg. 4

Alternative energy and conservation efforts undertaken by the Air Force could have a major impact on the renewable and sustainability marketplace because the military is a major purchaser of energy technology and fuels. Moreover, the efforts could reshape national priorities about reducing reliance on foreign energy supplies as a matter of national security.

Wynne said his service, with the help of DARPA, had developed a process to qualify alternative fuels in its aircraft fleet.

I was looking for some good news regarding the potential for alternative energy sources.   Air Force is the largest consumer of oil in the federal government and the Secretary of the Air Force has emphasized the need for clean alternatives to petroleum-based fuels.

SECDEF Gates, Iran, Smart Power

Secretary of Defense Gates referenced the need for the application of Smart Power in a Nov 26, 2007 speech in which he stated: 

 “…  I am here to make the case for strengthening our capacity to use “soft” power and for better integrating it with “hard” power.  ….    or as John Hamre once put it, to combine the tools of “intimidation” with the tools of “inspiration,” also called smart power

Examples on the application of Smart Power provided in the following articles:

Gates: U.S. Should Engage Iran With Incentives, Pressure(Washington Post)
…Karen DeYoung. The United States should construct a combination of incentives and pressure to engage Iran, and may have missed earlier opportunities to begin a useful dialogue with Tehran, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday.

Gates Urges More Nongovernmental Contacts With Iran (Reuters.com)…Arshad Mohammed, Reuters
… Defense Secretary Robert Gates called on Wednesday for more unofficial contacts with Iran, saying this might eventually open a pathway to more substantive dialogue between the governments.

US Defense Secretary Urges More Private US Contacts With Iran (Yahoo.com)…Agence France-Presse
…”We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage with the Iranians and then sit down and talk with them,” he said in a talk at the American Academy of Diplomacy, referring to general US relations with Tehran.