Wild Blue Yonder

June 8, 2023
Education is the Premise to Progress

Back to School In his recent keynote speech at the Air, Space, and Cyber Symposium, Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Q. Brown Jr. stated that “we must build our culture, not just our concepts” to meet potential threats. He identified multiple lines of effort “that will drive culture change,
May 15, 2023
Attritable Intelligence, Surveillance, And Reconnaissance (ISR): Concepts and Employment

The concept of Attritable ISR is not exactly new, but rather a return to warfare between great powers. Having engaged primarily in conflicts with non-peer countries with long-range ISR aircraft (such as the U-2 or SR-71) and satellite imagery, the US is not used to the idea of losing its ISR
Feb. 9, 2023
Modernizing 5th Gen Fighter Pilot Training

In no other profession are the penalties for employing untrained personnel so appalling or so irrevocable as in the military.- Douglas MacArthurAnnual Report of the Chief of Staff of the US Army (1933) Military training must…continually be forward-thinking, innovative, and aggressive.- Jim
Dec. 1, 2022
The False Dilemma: Rethinking AF Science and Technology Officer Talent Management

“The advantage will go to those who create the best technologies and who integrate and field them in creative operational ways that provide military advantages.” – former Secretary of the Air Force Heather WilsonToo few U.S. Air Force officers have sufficient science and technology (S&T) backgrounds
Oct. 13, 2022
Bombing to Win: Pape’s Denial in the Nuclear Age and the Russia-Ukraine Context

In his book Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War, Robert Pape argued how airpower could be used most effectively in war. Pape concluded that: “Denial can work, but strategic bombing is not the best way to achieve it. No strategic bombing campaign has ever yielded decisive results.”[1]
Sept. 29, 2022
A Three-Part Leadership Framework for the Cyber Community: A Model of Trust, Risk, and Influence

The Need for a New Theory of Leadership in the Cyber CommunityThis article explores how and why a new cyber leadership theory is needed for our military by extending work of past scholars, updating existing models, and offering a novel leadership theory specific to the cyber community. In relation
Sept. 22, 2022
Egypt’s Bread of Life: The Power of Food in Government

In response to rioting peasants outside the palace demanding bread, French queen Marie-Antoinette was famously quoted as saying “let them eat cake.” Whether or not this is quote is historically accurate or not, it reflects a reality that has been with governments as long as they have existed:
Sept. 15, 2022
Implications Of Context In Understanding China’s “Mask Diplomacy”

Since the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, 2020 China has been engaging in a foreign policy initiative. It has been labeled “Mask Diplomacy, a term that can be employed to describe its particular style of soft (e.g. cultural, symbolic, and discursive) and sharp (e.g. dispatched
Sept. 1, 2022
The New Containment

In 1947, George F. Kennan famously outlined in the pages of Foreign Affairs what became the “containment strategy.” Kennan’s argument, that the West and its allies must confront aggressive Soviet expansion anywhere, set the stage for much of America’s foreign policy throughout the Cold War,
Aug. 11, 2022
Command and Control Terms of Reference

Article updated on 16 August 2022. IntroductionThere’s never been a better time to be in the Command and Control (C2) business. The Joint Staff is investing heavily in the Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) program, which is designed to accelerate commanders’ decision cycles and close