Phillip Dolitsky recently critiqued my four part series of articles titled “How to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons” here on Chesterfield Strategy (see “Why Nuclear Weapons are Here to Stay.”) Dolitsky’s response is well researched, cogent, and clear. He is an able scholar, but we do have some points of disagreement. People often think that because I … Continue reading Why Nuclear Weapons Are Going to Go
The more one reads about strategic studies and strategic history, the more one finds that the old Latin adage, Si vis pacem, para bellum, has rightly dominated the minds of the world’s greatest statesmen and strategists. In a world that has known war longer than it has known peace, strategists are obligated to think through … Continue reading Why Nuclear Weapons Are Here to Stay
‘Nor can technology abolish war’s central essence as the realm of uncertainty and of the clash of wills. Processing power can no more replace discernment and sheer guts at the strategic level than on the battlefield itself.’ - The Dynamics of Military Revolution As more have come to accept that our global society is on … Continue reading Winning Wars: Technological advantage or the will to fight?
“But why, some say, the moon?”[1] While definitions of strategy vary, few question the value of a strategy to provide a ‘big idea’ and a sense of how an organisation can work towards an aspirational goal. As big ideas go, the President Kennedy’s 1961 proposal that the US commit ‘before this decade is out, of … Continue reading Project Apollo and Strategy as a Conversation
The closer you look at Information Operations (IO), the harder it becomes to define. Indeed, so too does the broader information instrument of national power; a component of the ‘DIME’[1] model, as well as many other models used to understand national power. The perceived complexity of IO is often the cause of needless friction in … Continue reading Information Operations: Marketing for War
In his 1998 landmark False Dawn, John Gray wrote that whatever mutation was to emerge from the disintegration of global free market capitalism and the uncontrolled spread of technology, it would likely be unrecognizable from capitalisms past. Two decades on, we can attest to Gray’s foresight. But the mutation that emerged has now become visible. … Continue reading The Geopolitics of Surveillance Capitalism
The future isn’t always going to be about machine-based organisms, direct-energy weapons (LASERS!) and artificial intelligence. It can be anchored in the past with the future battlespace being shaped by competing tactical and strategic demands. War will continue to be more than combat and technology and the sensationalism of new weapons and munitions may blind … Continue reading Drivers and Dividers: The Future of Munitions in Accelerated Warfare
New and novel technologies are transforming military capabilities and will impact how militaries will fight into the future. As with any transformation, new vulnerabilities are being exposed and will be exploited by future adversaries. These new technologies include directed energy weapons which are within the reach of our future adversaries. Directed energy weapons can be … Continue reading The ethics of directed energy weapons
