Carriers versus Amphibs

Bryan McGrath has a fantastic article at RealClearDefense discussing the substantial differences between aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships. I've written about some of these issues before ((Austerity and Naval Strategy, A Strategic Dialogue: Force Strength and Structure, and Carrier Aircraft and Economies of Scale), but McGrath's article is truly indispensable, and it's a fairly quick read. As I noted in some of those earlier posts, the current threat environment provides some opportunities for assets less costly than a supercarrier (for example, amphibs and "mobile landing platforms") to fill strategic gaps. However, they don't represent a one-for-one swap with supercarriers, and the supercarriers will remain the foundation of American naval strategy well into the foreseeable future. Put quite simply, they offer indispensable capabilities that alternative platforms can't replicate.

Recent BBC Documentaries

In the last month or so, the BBC has released a number of podcast documentaries of interest to both strategists and security practitioners. I wanted to share a few of these in case they're of interest to any readers out there.

Preparing for Disaster examines the Prepper Movement in the United States. I've written on this topic previously. I'm skeptical of the prepper movement, and I think that it's drawn in a lot of the same survivalist and revolutionary types who were active in the latter years of the Clinton Administration, talking about "black helicopters" and the "New World Order". The BBC documentary is similarly critical. I think it's worth noting, though, that when such documentaries are made, they tend to find the most extreme, fringe folks to interview - particularly because those folks are the ones who are most public about their views and lifestyle. The value of preparing one's home for disasters shouldn't be controversial; the value of preparing in advance to evacuate in case of an emergency shouldn't be controversial, either. I get the impression that the Prepper Movement is putting some people off of these reasonable measures, even as popularizing such measures encourages others to prepare for such contingencies.

If you're interested in the uses and drawbacks of online mapping utilities, you may enjoy Mapping the Void. I'd say it's the weakest of the documentaries I'm highlighting today, but it may be of some interest to some folks out there.

One of the most interesting selections is one entitled Crypto Wars, which discusses the early history of data encryption, the conflicts between data openness and confidentiality, the role that the American government has played, and so on. For the BBC, it's surprisingly even-handed, and absolutely worth your time, particularly if you're interested in some of the recent disclosure cases (Manning, Snowden, Assange), or if you have any interest in network security.

And finally, Egyptian author Tarek Osman has done a fascinating series that I have yet to finish listening. The episodes, in chronological order, are as follows: The Rise and Fall of Arab Liberalism, The Rise and Fall of Arab Nationalism, The Rise of Islamism, and The Rise of the Arab Spring. From what I've heard so far, it seems to do a pretty good job of compressing the last hundred years of Arab politics into a nutshell. If you're interested in issues relating to the Arab World, these are definitely worth your time to listen to.

Target Breach: Physical Security Meets Network Security

A good friend posted a great article (Bloomberg Businessweek: Missed Alarms and 40 Million Stolen Credit Card Numbers: How Target Blew It) about Target's recent data breach. The hackers who breached Target's system are believed to have gotten access to Target's infrastructure by impersonating HVAC repair workers. This is a key element of network security that's often overlooked: if you don't maintain physical control of your system, you no longer have a secure system, regardless of how well you may think your software controls are working.

New Business Processes for Situational Awareness

About a year and a half ago, I published a post singing Google Reader's praises. Then, Google discontinued it. A few months later, I discussed Feedly. I like Feedly, and I've loaded it with a lot of RSS feeds. One challenge I run into is that Feedly's website isn't really compatible with my Kindle Fire. Feedly has an app for the Kindle Fire, and I may try it at some point, but LinkedIn Pulse (or, rather, a version from before LinkedIn bought Pulse) is an inextricable inclusion on my Kindle.

I configured Pulse a while ago, but it's needed some adjustment for a while. What I've decided to do is to use Pulse as a sort of "Feedly Lite". When I'm out and about, or if I'm away from the house overnight and don't want to take a laptop with me, I can use Pulse on my Kindle to keep abreast of major news items. I'll leave some of the more in-depth stuff (particularly the stuff that only updates occasionally) solely in my Feedly feed for review when I'm on a laptop. So, what have I prioritized for my "Feedly Lite" Pulse feed?

Global
BBC News - World (RSS)
CNN.com - WORLD (RSS)
BBC News - NE Scotland, Orkney & Shetland (RSS)
Michael J. Totten's blog (RSS)
Michael Yon - Online Magazine (RSS)
1913 Intel (RSS)
BBC Newshour podcast (RSS)
BBC Global News Podcast (RSS)

MENA
BBC News - Middle East (RSS)
CNN.com - WORLD/Middle East (RSS)
al Jazeera English (RSS)
Times Of Oman (RSS)
Oman Observer (RSS)
Kuwait Times (RSS)
Arab Times (RSS)

Strategery
Spacewar.com (RSS)
Small Wars Journal (RSS)
The Long War Journal (Site-Wide) (RSS)
War on the Rocks (RSS)
War is Boring - Medium (RSS)
WIRED » Danger Room (RSS)
WIRED » Threat Level (RSS)
Kevin Hanrahan (RSS)

Leisure
Musings from a Stonehead (RSS)
xkcd.com (RSS)
AmazingSuperPowers (RSS)
Ctrl+Alt+Del (RSS)
Wondermark (RSS)
Terminal Lance (RSS)
Romantically Apocalyptic (RSS)
Penny Arcade (RSS)
Explosm.net (RSS)
GoComics.com - Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis (RSS)
Filibuster Cartoons (RSS)

Pulchritude
Open Source IMINT (RSS)
APOD (RSS)
Flickr: The U.S. Army (RSS)
Flickr: Official U.S. Navy Imagery (RSS)
Flickr: United States Marine Corps Official Page (RSS)
Flickr: Defence Images (RSS)
Flickr: Callum McKain (RSS)
Flickr: chimpaction (RSS)
Flickr: Orkneyjar (RSS)

Sometimes, a thorough news review with Feedly can take around an hour. With this Pulse setup, I can get caught up in fifteen or twenty minutes. It took a bit of work to get it all sorted out, but it should hopefully be worth it.

Achievement Unlocked: Security+

Although I tend to lean in the physical security direction, more and more physical security professionals are required to hold credentials reflecting the growing importance of network security. In November, I bought the Kindle edition of the CompTIA Security+: Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-301 Study Guide by Darril Gibson. (Gibson's website is here.) I've obviously been quite busy since November, but I've chipped away at the book, and spent the last couple of weeks studying. This morning, I went to my local testing center to take the CompTIA Security+ exam, and passed with a score of 825 (the minimum score is 750, the highest possible score is 900). I'm pretty excited, but there's no rest for yours truly: my next goal is to finally get my Physical Security Professional certification. Just as my Security+ certification quantifies my network security training and experience, I want to do the same for my physical security background. My goal is to get that completed by the end of June, but I may try to give it a good push in May.

Middle Eastern News Articles of Note

Every now and again, the Internet inundates me with a few really good articles about strategy and intelligence, and particularly about the Middle East. There have been some really good ones this week, and I wanted to share.

For those who are interested in espionage, strategy, and the relationship between intelligence and international politics, there's a really interesting set of articles on those topics. Prominent journalist Seymour Hersh has claimed in two articles (1, 2) that the Syrian chemical weapons attack in which President Obama's "red line" was crossed was actually orchestrated by a group of Syrian rebels and Turkish intelligence agents in order to compel the United States to involve itself in the conflict. Two articles detail the technical (Seymour Hersh's Volcano Problem) and political (Turkey's Syria Policy: Why Seymour Hersh Got it Wrong) reasons why Hersh's claims are extremely unlikely.

In yesterday's Arab Times (a Kuwaiti English language newspaper), there was an article entitled Amiri Diwan urges all off tape case; a corresponding article in the Kuwait Times seems to have been deleted. The Arab Times article didn't go into detail about the alleged contents of the tape, which drew my interest. Al Jazeera remedied that: Kuwait orders media blackout on 'coup' video. Go check it out.

General David Petraeus and CNAS fellow Vance Serchuk had a brilliant op-ed in the Washington Post on Wednesday: U.S. needs to plan for the day after an Iran deal. As the article notes in its concluding paragraph:

All too often in U.S. foreign policy, we set a strategic objective and pursue it doggedly — only to be insufficiently prepared for the consequences when we achieve our goal.

Finally, and also on the topic of Iran, the OSIMINT blog has a good article about expanding Iran-Pakistan border security, which discusses recent developments in the long-term insurgency in the Balochistan region. Go have a look.

Heartbleed Vulnerability: Which Passwords to Change

A pretty heinous online security gap has been identified this week. Mashable has put together a list of which websites have been affected. Best get to changing your passwords in order to protect your data and identity.

UPDATE: The xkcd webcomic has a fantastic comic about the Heartbleed vulnerability. Go have a look. If you haven't changed any passwords yet, get to it - I changed four yesterday.