I'm reposting this before even watching because Frank Kendall is always on my watch list and any decent administration next will have him front of the line to be SECDEF. That & the China Talk/2d Breakfast team always kills it.

Humankind: Engages in catastrophic warfare almost constantly for thousands of years Some weird sector of internet Christians: "OMG this is the one it's happening"

Honestly it's such a weird time to spent your career working China seriously

Look, what you've gotta understand is OBVIOUSLY the strategy is to bomb to regime change Iran so we can align them with us against China. 5D chessing everything

The only concern I have with a congressional candidate who wants to back Ukraine to the hilt, defend Taiwan, and impose costs on Israel for gross civilian harm is how much money I can donate to them. You fucking losers.

Well that's an unfortunate naming coincidence, but my Air Force days did not include flying planes or retiring in 1996. Don't train the PLA on how to kill us you fucks. www.justice.gov/opa/pr/forme...

This is the kind of things people say about the US before their entire fleet gets converted to coral reefs, they commit suicide in bunkers or get hanged for war crimes, or get buried at sea from the deck of an aircraft carrier.

Anyways, I'm very sick of having the majority of this field believe in shallow, universally applicable principles that seemingly solve everything, vs the understanding of nuance and complexity of unique situations that the field demands.

I really hate LinkedIn

Can we stop pretending "what would I do in their shoes" is a valid form of analysis? I don't care what you would do. I care about the decision from a complex system of foreign bureaucracies with differing interests, staffed by individuals with different cultures, history, and perspective than you.

Turns out it was there the whole time, who knew.

CSIS PONI's intro series have historically been quite good, and this follows in that tradition--worth a watch. Somehow large swathes of folks have lost the traditional Halperin/Schelling definition of arms control and adopted a narrow understanding of it that loses the actual aims and methods...

I don't understand how so many of the folks I know and talk to here clearly read a ton, but then still somehow post 10,000 times a day.

People would be wise to take all of the Zhang Youxia reporting with a grain of salt... There's a lot of speculation masquerading as authoritative analysis running around. Fact of the matter is very little is known besides the PLA's press releases, and Zhang and Liu are just the latest of many.

@jhu.edu just emailed out their alum magazine and gotta say, I was not exactly expecting the "ALUM ON ICE" cover story to be about... Ice skating.

Look, sometimes law enforcement issues get misinterpreted by folks with no experience in that world, but this seems incredibly clear and unambiguous.... www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

I don't know who needs to hear this but please do not let the anon meme folks whose policy platforms include paying thousands of people to listen for enemy bombers over CONUS send you to the Ukrainian frontline.

Ok these clowns are either just a hilariously inept group of anonymous wannabes with laughable ideas, or the funniest recruiting op for the Ukrainian foreign legion around. I don't even know where to start with this. defenseanalyses.org/fellowship/

These DARC clowns were running around spending their time complaining about how useless and weak ideas coming out of think tanks were. Now they've started writing their own ideas and they're... 100 times worse. It's really easy to be a critic and complain, much harder to do. These are hard problems

It's been a... tiring year

Let's be real, this would solve a lot of problems--so long as it had a decent whiskey selection. The parties and happy hours are hollow, issues get hammered out a few whiskeys in at a dive on the back of a napkin.

As I get closer to the launch of my new book, THE MOST AWFUL RESPONSIBILITY, I have started to really in earnest update some pages relating to it. Here is one that contains photos relating to the book — some well-known, some unusual/rare. alexwellerstein.com/writing/book...

Separately, I remember when I was in grad school another student trying to make the argument that the Army was still the most important service in the PLA due to everything being called the People's Liberation Army, and having to try and explain all of this. Isn't language fun?

Gerald C. Brown examines the future trajectory of China’s #nuclear force as it shifts to a “world-class” #nuclearforce, including drivers, political objectives, employment, and capability developments in his chapter from the new book in NBR's PLA series. www.nbr.org/publication/... #China

Don't even know where to start

Folks are too busy wringing their hands about imaginary Chinese shifts to counterforce and not spending enough time countering actual PRC nuclear intent--checking US nuclear options to enable conventional ops.

In case you missed it, Kerry Brown wrote a book that plagiarized Shelley Rigger’s classic book title. I, along with others who were asked to review Kerry’s manuscript, said verbatim to change the title. In the most tacky and unprofessional fashion, he stole her title anyway.

What I never understand about these types of articles is the notion that these approaches are or should be mutually exclusive. The world's too complicated for that, and analysts and practitioners should not be observing global events through a singular worldview.

What is the CCP’s vision for the PLA as a world-class military, and how does it intend to use this force to attain other national goals? Read the intro to NBR's new book "The PLA's Long March toward a World-Class Military": www.nbr.org/publication/... #China #XiJinping #PLA

Curious about what China’s nuclear force is evolving into? Using Chinese primary sources, my latest publication from @nbr.org maps out what China is building and the goals it intends to serve. 🧵 www.nbr.org/publication/...

I've been yelling for folks to better understand the intersection of conventional and nuclear forces for quite some time, they don't work in isolation. Glad Adam dug into this, I'm looking forward to reading.

Really excited this is finally out, a breakdown of my own chapter on the direction, goals, and application of China's nuclear force can be found linked here: bsky.app/profile/gera...

NEW BOOK! "The PLA's Long March toward a World-Class Military" examines #XiJinping ’s requirement for the #PLA to achieve "world-class" status by midcentury and the role it will play in supporting the #ChineseCommunistParty 's pursuit of national rejuvenation: nbr.org/publication/...

Curious about what China’s nuclear force is evolving into? Using Chinese primary sources, my latest publication from @nbr.org maps out what China is building and the goals it intends to serve. 🧵 www.nbr.org/publication/...