Midrats

What is a "crisis in leadership?

In an organization that prizes the Type-A personality that takes risk combined with a strong intellect - yet at the same times asks from it silence and order - what happens when each end loses faith and trust in the other?

Our guest for the full hour will be Peter Munson, Marine officer, KC-130 aircraft commander, Middle East specialist, author, and editor of Small Wars Journal.

As a starting point, we will use his article in SWJ, Disruptive Thinkers: Defining the Problem.

"Today’s military is facing a significant crisis.  ... The rank and file of the military who have made or witnessed the massive efforts and sacrifices of the past decade, and who have seen so very little in the way of satisfying results in return,  ... They are disappointed by the failures of leadership and imagination that have yielded toxic commands, a rash of firings in some services, and a breach of trust with our most vulnerable servicemembers.  They wonder about the future of the weapons systems that support and defend them as they read tales of acquisition woe.  They question the growing focus on bureaucratic minutiae.  They question how they can be trusted so completely in a combat environment, but are treated as children in garrison.  They wonder how a military system that prides itself on justice will reward the generals that have presided over failure, ...  while at the same time eroding the autonomy and discretion of junior commanders with a creeping campaign of bureaucratic centralization.

These are symptoms of a malaise facing the military, of an ossified and decadent institutional culture and a bloated bureaucracy that has grown a profusion of power centers that jealously guard their territory and their budget."

Five months and a bit to the November 2012 election.

The war in Iraq is over, the war in Afghanistan is adrift - but the underlying cause of both remains. OBL is dead yet the drone wars expand.

Our traditional European allies have never been weaker in living memory. The old order in the Arab world is changing, and the western Pacific grows in focus.

A military worn out by a decade of war is also looking at decreasing resources in a slugish economy.

Where do we prioritize? What is the best mix of strategy and programs to best prepare our military for the challenges of this century?

Which issues related to national defense will make it in to the 2012 contest? How do President Obama and Governor Romney differ in their views, plans, and priorities for our nation's military?

Our returning guest for the full hour will be Mackenzie Eaglen, Resident Fellow at the Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

Mackenzie Eaglen has worked on defense issues in the U.S. Congress, both House and Senate, and at the Pentagon in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and on the Joint Staff. She specializes in defense strategy, budget, military readiness and the defense industrial base. In 2010, Ms. Eaglen served as a staff member of the congressionally mandated Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel, a bipartisan, blue-ribbon commission established to assess the Pentagon's major defense strategy. A prolific writer on defense related issues, she has also testified before Congress.

This Memorial Day Weekend how better to reflect than to look at the core of our military - the Non-Commissioned Officer corps.  Our guests are Yeoman Second Class (Surface Warfare) H. Lucien Gauthier III, USN - Aviation Electronics Technician First Class (Aviation Warfare) Charles H. Berlemann Jr, USN - and Machinery Technician First Class Tony Turner, USCG.

The USSR may be gone ... but Russia has not gone anywhere.

While the news seems to be all around Russia from the rise of China, the incredible success of the Baltic states, Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics, to the European edge of the "near abroad" - Russia continues to be a major player.

Is it still feeding off the corpse of the USSR, or is there a new dynamism and potential? If not a democracy in the Western sense and not Communist either - what is it?

Where does it see its role beyond a seller of weapons and energy? Is Putin just about Putin - or does he have a larger vision for Russia?

Why has Russia taken the position it has from Syria to Iran in the face of world opinion?

To discuss this and more, for the full hour we will have returning guest Dr. Dmitry Gorenburg, Senior Analyst, CNA Strategic Studies, an Associate at Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and author and host of the Russian Military Reform blog.

With the recent announcement of the naming of DDG-116 after Medal of Honor recipient CAPT Thomas Hudner, USN (Ret) and the fact we have Mother's Day this Sunday - it is an easy decision on today's show.

A replay of our Navy Air Korean War episode with CAPT Hudner in the first half hour, and then author David Sears to discuss his book Men Such as These: The Story of the Navy Pilots Who Flew the Deadly Skys Over Korea.

No guests on this week's show - just open phone and open topic.

Join Sal from the blog "CDR Salamander" and EagleOne from "Eagle Speak" for the full hour as they discuss the full range of maritime and national security issues.

Shipbuilding, procurement programs, maritime strategy, piracy, and larger national security trends - we'll cover it all.

This is also the listener's chance to ask Sal and EagleOne about the topics and issues they would like addressed, or to amplify topics from other shows.

Here's your chance .....

As many are looking back at the last decade+ of war, many want to forget.

Indeed, as reported by Michael Hirsh in National Journal, "The war on terror is over," one senior State Department official who works on Mideast issues told me. "Now that we have killed most of al Qaida, now that people have come to see legitimate means of expression, people who once might have gone into al Qaida see an opportunity for a legitimate Islamism."

Perhaps it is time to look back even further, before 911, to see how we got here.

Our guest this Sunday for the full hour will be Kirk Lippold, CDR USN (Ret), Commanding Officer of the USS COLE (DDG-67) at the time of her attack 12 OCT 2000 in the port of Aden, Yemen - and author of the new book, a first hand account of the attack from the Commander's perspective, Front Burner: Al Qaeda's Attack on the USS Cole.

Throughout out nation's history in the Pacific and more recently, the Indian Ocean, there have been a few cornerstone challenges that remain regardless of technology, strategy, or geopolitics; the tyranny of distance and the reality of square miles.  The large open ocean, and the challenge of bases and resupply.

Both theaters are defined by their ocean, and no power can impact events these areas without a strong naval presence.

In an environment of shrinking budgets, a fleet with a paucity of auxiliaries, and a future fleet that will have as a major portion of units a shallow water, limited mission, short range, LCS with a high reliance on base support - are we building a navy to meet strategic requirements, or are we trying to find a strategy to meet the fleet we are building?

Our guest for the full hour will be Robert Haddick, Managing Editor of Small Wars Journal.

He writes the "This Week at War" column for Foreign Policy Magazine that covers current military developments, defense strategy, emerging threats, Pentagon planning, service doctrine, and related topics. We will use his article, The Navy's Pacific Problem, as a reference point for the show's discussion.

Haddick was a U.S. Marine Corps officer, served in the 3rd and 23rd Marine Regiments, and deployed to Asia and Africa. He has advised the State Department and the National Intelligence Council on strategy and irregular warfare issues.

What is real, and what is a mirage?  Can something be a cost effective strategic option, or a fool's errand?

As outlined by our guests in their latest work in the periodical, Asian Security; An Ocean Too Far: Offshore Balancing in the Indian Ocean; the United States is beset by war weariness after over a decade of war and a half century plus of global commitments. We find ourselves with a stagnant economy, and skyrocketing defense procurement costs. It is seductive to think of retiring from continental Eurasia, but if history calls us back - returning in times of systemic conflict would be problematic – even in the relatively accessible rimlands of Western Europe and East Asia.

In a part of the world with the planet's largest democracy - offshore balancing is close to impossible in the Indian Ocean.

As it turns out, offshore balancing in the Indian Ocean may be no balancing at all.

Our guest for the full hour to discuss their article will be U.S. Naval War College Associate Professors James R. Holmes & Toshi Yoshihara.

This Easter, we will return to our discussion about the U.S. Coast Guard's role in defending the USA from the flow of illegal drugs. Our guest will be CDR E. A. Westfall, CDR, USCG, then Commanding Officer of the USCGC ESCANABA (WMEC 907).