Shaping a 21st Century Defense Strategy: The Norwegian Way Ahead

01/16/2017
2017-01-08 By Robbin Laird Norway stands at an interesting global and historical point in the evolution of Western defense. It faces directly resurgent Russia and faces the challenge with its Nordic partners of Baltic defense as well. Then with the Arctic opening and the High North actually part of Norwegian…

Evolving Technological Threats: The Coming of High-Speed Maneuvering Weapons

01/15/2017
2017-01-08 By Robbin Laird As Mark Lewis, the former Chief Scientist of the USAF, has warned repeatedly, high speed weapons, notably hypersonic ones, are on the way and will be part of the evolving threat environment. As he wrote in 2010: Aerospace engineering is ultimately about pushing the boundaries, and…

Coming to Grips With a Strategic Shift: From Non-Proliferation to Strategic Deterrence in the Second Nuclear Age

01/15/2017
2017-01-05 By Paul Bracken, Yale University The most interesting thing about the second nuclear age is that it actually came about. It wasn’t supposed to happen, at least according to most political science theory. What was supposed to happen after the cold war was a reinvigorated global nuclear nonproliferation regime,…

Shaping the Way Ahead for the Combat Insertion Force: The 15th MEU Goes to Sea with the USS America

01/14/2017
2017-01-07 By Robbin Laird A simple news release highlights the evolving USN-USMC combat team as a key step forward in shaping the combat infrastructure for the sea base which can support evolving capabilities for the assault force. According to a press release from the USMC dated January 6, 2017: The…