DEFENSE
Web Sites On Military Transformation
By
Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Friday, Dec. 5, 2003
d-n-i.net
This site, Defense and the National Interest, is the online headquarters for a band of intensely intellectual, fiercely passionate reformers, whose bitterness belies the influence they have had, albeit often unacknowledged, on the defense debate. Besides vitriolic commentaries on current issues by Franklin C. "Chuck" Spinney, the site includes William Lind's original article on "Fourth Generation Warfare" and other seminal texts. It also has the late Col. John Boyd's briefings on adapting quickly to keep ahead of the enemy's decision-making process.
lexingtoninstitute.org
If DNI is a voice crying in the wilderness, the Lexington Institute speaks for the inner sanctum. Its chief defense expert, Loren Thompson, is intimate with top Pentagon and industry officials. He is also a consultant who regularly writes in defense of top-dollar programs such as the F-22 fighter. But Thompson is also urbane, insightful, and highly quotable -- the most intelligent advocate of the high-tech, big-budget vision of transformation.
csbaonline.org
The blandly named Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments is the home base of one of the best-known and most articulate apostles of transformation, Andrew Krepinevich. CSBA's site offers an extensive online library on transformation, the Pentagon budget, and a whole range of other defense issues. Offerings vary from congressional testimonies to a 50-page assessment of the war in Iraq.
comw.org/pda
For a dovish and skeptical perspective on transformation, and on Bush administration defense policy in general, look to the Commonwealth Institute's Project on Defense Alternatives, based (of course) in Cambridge, Mass. The PDA site's extensive links and its library of in-house publications offer a thoughtful corrective to standard Washington thinking. Online guru John Pike calls the institute "a really small policy shop that continues to do really good work on the hot topics."
globalsecurity.org
Want to know more about the missiles that shot down U.S. helicopters in Iraq? Or how many U.S. forces are in which countries around the world? Or the brief history of each of 31 civil wars and uprisings currently under way around the globe? Or are you interested in the history of the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone? That's just a fraction of the staggering (and sometimes bewildering) database compiled by the eminently quotable John Pike at GlobalSecurity.org.
strategypage.com
Don't be put off by the StrategyPage's presentation: the endless pop-ups, the war-game ads, the discussion topics such as "Could an M1A2 beat two T-90s tanks?" At its core, the site offers insightful, irreverent commentary on the often-messy intersection between high-flown military theories and the grim realities on the ground. The site's editor and principal writer is Jim Dunnigan, a leading war-game designer for 30 years and the author of such books as A Quick and Dirty Guide to War.
carlisle-www.army.mil
Of all the armed services, the Army is the one most divided over how to transform. The U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pa., is the intellectual hub for much of that debate, and its Web site has an extensive online library of articles, scholarly papers, and even books. For the richest troves, click on "Organizations & Institutes" and go to the college's Strategic Studies Institute and its Center for Strategic Leadership.
defenselink.mil
The Defense Department's official site is the gateway to the entire U.S. military machine. Skip past the propagandistic news stories that dominate the home page and go straight for the links at the right. "Press Resources" neatly presents not only every press release, but also full transcripts of press conferences by top officials. "About DOD" provides a package of primers on the mammoth department. "More... " leads to a massive list of defense-related sites in alphabetical order, from the Air Force home page, to the Homeland Security Department, to "Hurricane Hunters" of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron.
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