Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

June 20, 2003Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

“Buy American” is Bad for America Issue Brief If you’ve never read The Federalist and were curious why the Founding Fathers thought Congress should have two chambers rather than one, there’s a clinical case-study of what concerned them unfolding right now in the U.S. House of [Read More...]

June 17, 2003Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

The Hidden Dangers Of Networked Warfare Issue Brief “Network-centric warfare” is the greatest military innovation of this generation. All the armed forces are being linked in a wireless web that will enable them to instantly assimilate and act on information from diverse sources. The resulting gains [Read More...]

June 2, 2003Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Keep Raptor On Track Issue Brief Isn’t it a relief to have Republicans running the Pentagon, since they’re the only party that has demonstrated a commitment to modernizing U.S. military forces? Just kidding. It wasn’t Democrats who cut the B-2 bomber program from 132 [Read More...]

May 26, 2003Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Tanker Lease is Answer Letter to the Editor of Defense News To the Editor: Your editorial of May 19 (“The Case for Leasing”) was a perfect exposition of the issues surrounding replacement of aging Air Force tankers. I could not agree more with the [Read More...]

May 21, 2003Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Marine Vertical Agility: Real Transformation, Right Now Issue Brief Victory, Count Ciano said, finds a hundred fathers (defeat is an orphan). So it must be a sure sign of bureaucratic victory that all the armed services are claiming credit for inventing military transformation. Transformation — the application [Read More...]

May 19, 2003Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Reflections on the Alliance Lunch 1.On May 13, Lexington Institute sponsored a luncheon meeting of a dozen experts to discuss the future of alliances. Without trying to characterize the content of the whole meeting, I would like to note three interesting issues that arose. Because [Read More...]

May 13, 2003Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Iraq Campaign Underscores Value Of Jumpjets Issue Brief The military services are rushing to complete assessments of what lessons can be learned from Operation Iraqi Freedom, before defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld draws his own (less congenial) conclusions. Some service findings are likely to be controversial, such [Read More...]

May 9, 2003Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

DDX Will Decide Whether Warships Have A Future Issue Brief Ever since Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet embarked on a globe-girding display of power at the dawn of the American Century, the Navy’s surface combatants — battleships, cruisers, destroyers and frigates — have secured the world’s seas for [Read More...]

April 17, 2003Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Strategic Warning: The Promise And The Problem Issue Brief On April 11 the New York Times published a remarkable interview with Dr. Stephen Cambone, the Defense Department’s new Under Secretary for Intelligence. Cambone is the first person to occupy the position, created in recognition of the central [Read More...]

April 3, 2003Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Iraq War Plan: Why Rumsfeld Was Right Issue Brief It appears there are only two places in America where Donald Rumsfeld is still held in high regard: the White House and everywhere outside the Washington Beltway. The latest complaint capital insiders level against Rumsfeld is that he [Read More...]