Welcome to my Blog on the Ancient Art of Modern Warfare. (I wanted to call it the “Ancieunt Arte of Moderne Warfarre” but my wife said no one would ever find it.)
In this blog I want to discuss and explore the technical and tactical developments that indicate warfare is undergoing a fundamental change, an ongoing revolution in military affairsrendering all previous forms of warfare, with its theories, strategies, and tactics obsolete. Autonomous weapons systems, hypersonic missiles, cyber-warfare, contractors on the battlefield, the rise of mercenaries, and the ever popular “hybrid-warfare” and more all promise to upend our notions of armed conflict and place the United States and it partners at a strategic and maybe even an existential disadvantage. My position on this is that although these developments are changing the application of national power the basic principles of strategy and warfighting remain unchanged. The nature or substance of war is unchanging while the characteristics – or “accidents” – are constantly changing.
This blog supplements my podcast of the same name (found at https://www.podbean.com/site/Search/index?v=mayhemxpc). At least for now, I intend to upload new podcasts about once per week and each one will be about 9 to 12 minutes long. That is really only enough time to introduce a topic or idea. The blog exists to provide additional information, including references for things mentioned in the podcast, and to provide an opportunity for others to join in the conversation.
Subject to change, the topics of the first few podcasts will be:
- Introduction, teaser for Russian mercenaries
- Russian Mercenaries part 1
- Intro to Hybrid Warfare: the role of Russian mercenaries
- The difference between Russian mercs and U.S./Western PMSCs and why that is important