School of War Reader: Trump Seeks to Remake the World
Trump Seeks to Remake the World
Walter Russell Mead, The Wall Street Journal
Guest Walter Mead on Donald Trump’s integration of economics and national security:
First and foremost, restraint isn’t part of Mr. Trump’s political method. He seeks to accumulate as much executive power as possible at home; he wants the same thing internationally. Far from limiting America’s world role, Mr. Trump intends to place the country at the center of international affairs. What Alice Longworth said of her father, Theodore Roosevelt, is true of Mr. Trump, at least as far as his approach to international and domestic politics. He wants to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding, and the baby at every christening. That doesn’t mean he is a neoconservative or a liberal internationalist. The 47th president loathes crusades for democracy, despises multinational institutions, and treats international courts with the contempt he believes they deserve. While he genuinely hates war, Mr. Trump believes in pressing America’s economic, technological and military advantages as far as he can in pursuit of an expansive vision of the national interest.
Winning the Fight for Sensing and Sensemaking
Brian Clark, Hudson Institute
On the sensor-war in any coming conflict against China:
DoD is unlikely to gain the upper hand in a symmetric missile vs. air defense competition with the PLA in the Western Pacific. Instead, it should take an asymmetric approach and degrade the PLA’s ability to understand and anticipate allied operations or accurately target US forces. Attacking adversary command, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C5ISR) capabilities is already a stated objective of US Indo-Pacific Command leaders. However, counter-C5ISR operations have historically focused on defeating enemy attacks during combat, when the PLA’s capacity advantages may obviate US and allied EW or cyber operations. Instead, US and allied counter-C5ISR operations will need to center on preventing conflict. PLA commanders may still see US and allied units operating in the region, but an inability to obtain precise location data, predict which US or allied forces are most important to planned operations, or expect their weapons to accurately hit intended targets may dissuade them from attacking.
School of War Ep 136: Ronald C. White on Joshua Chamberlain
For this week’s anniversary of Little Round Top, feel free to revisit my discussion with Ronald White about one of the Union’s most celebrated generals:
Lincoln believed that this nation was formed both by political and religious values. And that has nothing to do with the separation of church and state. But the idea that religion was at the heart and soul of what this country began and what it became. And this was what it is for Chamberlain, Chamberlain was really a deeply religious person, kind of traditional Christian values. And so these values, he thought, were up for grabs. How were we going to decide what this nation would be, going forward? And this is why he was able to see the Union as something very, very important. This wasn't simply about individual rights, or even individual states' rights, it was about the blending together of a national union. And he very much was, in that sense, a fan and a proponent of what Abraham Lincoln believed about the Union.
The U.S. Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, John Adams, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman, U.S. Continental Congress
The authors complain about tax increases, among other issues:
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.