Category: Content Series

Lightfoot in DGAPanalyse: The United Kingdom and the European Union: Implications of Brexit

By Jeff Lightfoot

Read the full article here.

The Military Implications of Scottish and Catalonian Secession

By James Hasik

  Scotland will free-ride in the Atlantic without sustained investment, but Catalonian maritime specialization would be welcome in the Mediterranean. On 18 September, Scotland votes on the question of independence from the United Kingdom, and the polling strongly suggests a vote of no. On 9 November, Catalonia could be voting on the same issue vis-à-vis Spain, but the polling slightly […]

Germany and Japan’s Differing Arms Export Regimes

By James Hasik

It’s much easier to kill an arms exporting franchise than to build one. The armaments export policies of Germany and Japan seem to be crossing paths this month. His recent approval of the export of a whole tank factory to Algeria notwithstanding, German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel is said to have been piling up license requests on his desk, content to […]

Impossible, But Still inadequate?

By James Hasik

The MRAP experience still shows how military requirements need to hew to the state of the art in attainable technologies.   Early this month, the US Army’s Research, Development and Engineering Command held a conference at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland to discuss ways to reduce the weight of armored vehicles by 40 percent, but without […]

The Local Debate about TTIP in Several European Countries

TTIP – Debate: European Goals and FearsIn this video from Deutsche Welle, an international German broadcaster, Olaf Böhnke, head of the Berlin Office of the European Council on Foreign Affairs is interviewed on the European goals and fears about TTIP. Böhnke says that even though agriculture and food safety issues currently make the headlines in […]

The three big questions of defense-industrial strategy

By Steven Grundman

Commercial or military, autarkic or globalized, public or private? What are the industrial base issues that need to be considered in any defense strategy? In this age of austerity in military spending, we are hearing calls for bolder policies that would break with past practice, rewarding companies for taking risks, and punishing those that failed. We hear […]

On the Arrogance of Should-Cost

By James Hasik

Better outcomes in military procurement still await a better-educated workforce. In April 2010, then-Under Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter promulgated the first version of his Better Buying Power concept, which mandated (amongst other things) “should-cost” reviews for major procurements. The strategy aims to determine what a weapon should cost, if the government and the contractors […]

What Uber Can Teach the Pentagon

By James Hasik

The appointment of SVP Emil Michael to the Defense Business Board is a good start.   Last week, the Defense Department announced that fully eight new members would be joining its Defense Business Board, the panel that advises the Pentagon on, well, business. We might hope that the Defense would pay more attention to its Business Board, […]