New-Generation Flying Tankers Key In Bid For Saving Fairchild Base

Seattle Times April 30, 2012 Spokane-area leaders say the key to preserving the base may be landing the next generation of aerial-refueling tankers to be built by Boeing. By Nicholas K. Geranios, Associated Press SPOKANE — Fairchild Air Force Base is Spokane County's largest employer and has been a mainstay of the local economy for …

Flying Not Quite As High: Our threatened airpower. By Michael Auslin

Weekly Standard May 7, 2012 View Original / Michael Auslin / Weekly Standard The release of the Obama administration’s defense budget in January makes clear just how the president intends to reshape the U.S. military. For starters, the Army will shrink 14 percent by 2017, the Marines will decrease by 20,000, six Air Force fighter …

Strategy and Organization by Henry Kissinger Foreign Affairs (Apr 1957)

A bud of mine, Josh Zaker, passed this piece to me the other day.  It was written for Foreign Affairs in the Spring of 1957... amazing at how relevant Dr Kissinger's words are still for us 55 years later.  I have pasted the conclusion below and the article is at the link...great stuff. Kissinger Strategy …

GREATER THINGS: Interagency Collaboration and Planning in the “New” Global Security Environment From The Industrial to the Information Revolution

By J. William DeMarco, Curt Rauhut, and Kurt Waymire Joint Forces Staff College, November 2009 The only constant is change, continuing change, inevitable change that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will …

Terror Risk Falls, U.S. Officials Say By Siobhan Gorman

Wall Street Journal April 28, 2012 Pg. 4 WASHINGTON—The chances of a Sept. 11-style attack have substantially decreased as a result of U.S. counterterrorism operations, according to senior U.S. intelligence officials who provided an assessment Friday of the state of al Qaeda a year after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. A high-casualty attack …

The U.S. Army In A Time Of Transition Building a flexible force By Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, Army Chief of Staff

Foreign Affairs May 1, 2012 After six months as chief of staff, I can see clearly that the coming decade will be a vital period of transition for the U.S. Army. The service will have to adjust to three major changes: declining budgets, due to the country's worsened fiscal situation; a shift in emphasis to …

What Happened to Strategy? by david

view original / theleaderlab.org Over the past 50 years, strategy has been examined, factored and reduced to a few simple formulas. In that time, strategy has moved from the realm of senior leaders to the hoards MBAs and consultants. That’s the thrust of the argument Cynthia Montgomery makes in The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs. Montgomery …

Pentagon Preps Chopping Block For Next Round Of Base Closures

Washington Times April 27, 2012 Pg. 1 By Rowan Scarborough, The Washington Times Defense Department officials are quick to say the formal process of selecting U.S. military bases for closure will not begin until Congress says so. But people inside the Pentagon already are talking about candidates for the politically charged process that often triggers …

Decline or Decadence? – Victor Davis Hanson – National Review Online

View Original / Victor Davis Hanson Almost daily we read of America’s “waning power” and “inevitable decline,” as observers argue over the consequences of defense cuts and budget crises. Yet much of the new American “leading from behind” strategy is more a matter of choice than of necessity. Apparently, both left-wing critics of U.S. foreign …

What Doesn’t Motivate Creativity Can Kill It by Steve Kramer, Teresa Amabile

blogs.hbr.org / view original Management is widely viewed as a foe of innovation. The thinking goes that too much management strangles innovation (just let a thousand flowers bloom!). But we have found a much more nuanced picture. You really can manage for innovation, but it starts by knowing what drives creativity in the people who generate and develop the …