Dateline: Holiday Inn Select at Norfolk VA, 4 August 2004
Second day at Joint Forces Command, which sees me introduced for the first time as a JFCOM Senior Concept Developer, which is pretty cool. I give a 90-minute version to a room of about 50 senior officers, followed by a solid 15 of Q&A. The response was very positive, but not surprising, since this was a conference to explore the ìback half,î or Sys Admin force and thatís a huge portion of my message.
After lunch with a select group of officers and civilians, including the senior on-site US Agency for International Development liaison, I headed over to Joint Staff College nearby where a class on transformation was being taught by my host on this trip, the always slick and fascinating Shane Deichman, Chief Devilís Advocate and head of the Warfighting Lab in J-9. As it so happened, the class that week was reading my two Esquire articles and discussing them, so having me sit in and participate was fairly interesting. About 30 officers in all, a bit more junior than Iím used to, but not surprisingly a fairly flexible bunch. Why? They were the last crew educated for the Cold War, but theyíve spent their entire careers jumping around the world dealing with crisis after crisis and intervention after intervention. As one guy put it, ìOur entire careers have been about expecting the unexpected, so weíre getting pretty used to it.î
Later, in the afternoon, I got confirmation from China that my little exercise in one-man diplomacy is a go in Beijing. My host for the two days is Prof. Yu Keping, Director of the China Center for Comparative Politics and Economics and the Center for Chinese Government Innovations, both located at Beijing University. Dr. Yu has set up two talks for me, and has assured me theyíll be ready with a projector for my PowerPoint (Iím taking the laptop to blog the trip real-time):
∑ The first talk will be on Wednesday, August 11 in the morning (we touch down at 9pm the night before, so I should be a bit diceyóthus testing my claim that Iíve done the brief so many times I could recite it in my sleep!). The audience, according to Prof. Yu, will be ìa small group of senior experts at the China Reform Forum.î That one sounds very interesting, to say the least.
∑ The second talk will be on Thursday, August 12, at 1000 in the morning. I will lecture a group of about 30 scholars at the China Center for Comparative Politics and Economics.
In both venues, I will be very eager to hear about how the Theory of Peacefully Rising China impacts the national security structure of China, and hopefully thereby learn how the evolution of our national security establishment can be shaped to facilitate that change. In short, Iíve decided to start having my own foreign policy.
Yes, yes, I know itís ambitious in the extreme, but what the hell, say I, the neocons are keeping a very low profile right now, and Powell is his usual invisible self, so with the election keeping the Democrats so vague on everything of any meaning, itís a good time for someone bold like myself to take the reins and see what I can do.
Hmm. Did I mention I plan on seeing ìThe Manchurian Candidateî tonight?
Todayís catch (again, no Times here to be had in Norfolk!). After talking as much as I did today, I ainít got a lot of gas left, so itíll be short and sweet:
Democrats are loaded for elephants
ìCourting the Kerry Republicans,î by Marie Cocco, Washington Post, 4 Aug, p. A19.
ìNo signs of a cease-fire in written war on Bush: Five more major releases coming before election,î by Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today, 4 Aug, p. 6D.
ìEuropeís Choice,î by Victor David Hanson, Wall Street Journal, 4 Aug, p. A12.
ìGeneral Malaise,î by Eliot A. Cohen, WSJ, 4 Aug, p. A12.
Most of what the military does and suffers flies under the radar
ìWhereís Rumsfeld?î by Harold Meyerson, WP, 4 Aug, p. A19.
ìAs Ranks Dwindle In a Reserve Unit, Armyís Woes Mount: After Tours in Two War Zones, Many in 110th Are Fed Up; Tough Sell for Recruiters,î by Greg Jaffe, WSJ, 4 Aug, p. A1.
ìPhantom Legions For Iraq,î by Jim Hoagland, WP, 4 Aug, p. A19.
ì$1.9 Billion of Iraqís Money Goes to U.S. Contractors,î by Ariana Eunjung Cha, WP, 4 Aug, p. A1.