The One-Eyed Man is King

– USNI Blog – America’s Navy, You live in the land of the blind, comforted in the darkness by your weaponry, your history, and your hubris. You believe you understand the threat and that all your competitors in this new Great Power contest are enveloped in the same blinding fog of future war. But we are not equal: you are at a disadvantage in this game—you are beholden to a past age and must predict and anticipate changes as they proliferate and develop across a world system toeing the edge of collapse, as we rise on its demise.

Naval Deployments, Exercises, and the Geometry of Strategic Partnerships in the Indo-Pacific

– CIMSEC – From March to June 2019 naval diplomacy and an underlying strategic geometry was on show as India, Australia, France, and Japan deployed across and around the Indo-Pacific. All of them were involved in operating with each other, with the U.S., and with other actors in the region like Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Naval Intelligence, the CIA, and the Soviet-Russian Threat: The Cold War and Beyond

– USNI Blog – As the United States and its Navy orient to the current Russian threat, there are lessons to be learned from Cold War history. The original Cold Warriors succeeded in avoiding a direct, large-scale military clash between the United States and Soviet Union. In such a “cold” conflict, intelligence counts as much as firepower. With a growing body of previously classified material now available, researchers and intelligence professionals have increased insight into what worked well—and what did not—in the U.S. intelligence community’s efforts to understand the Soviet Navy. These lessons remain relevant.

Think Cold Thoughts: The Drift

– Defense News – I figured we’d think cold thoughts and dedicate this edition of The Drift to a little Arctic chat. The Senate Armed Services Committee is having the military look at what it would take to build a port up there and so I figured I’d call Bryan Clark, retired submarine officer and naval analyst extraordinaire at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and ask him what he thought.