We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2010 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:34:04 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2010 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Secretary Gates was in Kansas yesterday, giving the latest installment of the Landon Lectures at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. Kat, I see, stole my thunder in her post below, necessitating a bit of a rewrite. Sigh. I oughta lock the place until I'm open for business... I don't need to throw the props to Cannoneer #4 yet again, but I thought of him when the Secretary was going through that portion of his speech. I find the Washington Post's headline interesting... Gates Urges Increased Funding for Diplomacy, with the tagline of Secretary Calls for Use of 'Soft Power'.... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html Tue, 27 Nov 2007 06:57:07 -0600 Reduced woad expenditures. Cheers http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67138 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67138 Wed, 28 Nov 2007 13:56:10 -0600 Aw, man. Brab isn't a push over but she'd go for it. But Unka Bill and Dusty? They'd say no just because it's fun to watch me turn blue. Cruel bastich. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67112 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67112 Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:09:52 -0600 linked to you here.]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67107 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67107 Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:03:48 -0600 Put in a requisition (in triplicate, natch) and get it co-signed by the Adj, Dusty, and Bill. Then we'll talk about extravagances like a space heater. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67105 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67105 Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:55:27 -0600 Heh. Judging from the nearly complete lack of traction I got for this... anywhere except Cannoneer #4's hangout at Small Wars Journal, I must really be over-reading this bit. Nah, just means my sleep schedule is all farked up again and I'm not getting to anything until late in the afternoon or evening. And you know you love the fact that I'm rather predictable. This is such a re-iteration of Barnett's 'Dept of Everything Else' and 'Development in a Box' doctrines that I'm surprised Gates simply didn't admit he was cribbing. Leviathan and SysAdmin are just the two elements of his theories that I talk about the most, as they pertain to the Warfighter the most. And can I get a space heater for my hole? This one's colder than the one at the old Castle. ]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67098 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67098 Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:46:32 -0600 Heh. Judging from the nearly complete lack of traction I got for this... anywhere except Cannoneer #4's hangout at Small Wars Journal, I must really be over-reading this bit. So *this* is what "An Army of One" means! http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67094 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67094 Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:05:07 -0600 We're not talking solely about doing info in nations where we have a military presence. We're talking about communicating ideas in Kazahkstand, Saud Arabia, Argentina, etc, etc, etc in places that are nominally friendly or not, where the message needs to reach the deepest. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67086 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67086 Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:49:55 -0600 Oddly enough, Matt - while we're continually accused of being Imperial, we aren't set up for it. The questions really are... can we and should we? http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67073 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67073 Tue, 27 Nov 2007 09:17:53 -0600 To any European, the Secretary's point is self-evident. If you're going to administer other people's countries, you need an appropriate bureaucracy. This bureaucracy needs to have a very long-term approach and the necessary funding, manpower and skills. In Britain we called it the Colonial Office. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67072 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67072 Tue, 27 Nov 2007 09:02:23 -0600 "The way you institutionalize these capabilities is probably not to recreate or repopulate instutions of the past such as USAID or USIA. On the other hand just adding more people to existing government departments such as Agriculture, Treasury, Commerce, Justice and so on is not a sufficient answer either. Even if they were to be more deployable overseas. New institutions are needed for the 21st Century. New organizations with a 21st Century mindset. For example, Public Relations was invented in the United States, yet we are miserable at communicating to the rest of the world what we are about as a society and a culture, about freedom and democracy, about our policies and our goals. It is just plain embarrassing that al Qaeda is better at communicating its message on the internet than America. As one foreign diplomat asked a couple of years ago, how has one man in a cave managed to out-communicate the world’s greatest communications society? Speed, agility and cultural relevance are not terms that come readily to mind when discussing U.S. Strategic Communications." -- SECDEF, 36:26 to 37:42 on the RealPlayer video.]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67071 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/11/defense_secreta.html#comment-67071 Tue, 27 Nov 2007 08:52:48 -0600