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War in the Modern World

For two years now, I've blogged about War in the Modern World, which by no coincidence is also the name of an online master's degree 'programme' at King's College London. My classmates are mostly mature, mostly military, and mostly on active duty with the British Army. We're scattered all over, from Singapore to Los Angeles, with usually one or two deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Now that I've begun my third and last year at the virtual campus on the Strand, I'm giving more permanent form to my papers that seem to deserve it. New this month: The Clayton Theorem (or: Did George Marshall Save the US from Economic Collapse?). I was astonished to find that the conventional wisdom on the Marshall Plan is that it was a clever American scheme to head off a return of the Great Depression. So I read the Senate testimony to find out how significant a factor this was. The short answer: nah.

Meanwhile, I've just completed my first short essay for this year: That’s what presidents are for! (Why is 'planning' not the same thing as 'strategy'?). We've gone back to first principles in our fifth term of study, and here I attempt to look at the US invasion of Iraq in the light of Clausewitz, Hegel, and (perhaps) Col John Boyd and his OODA Loop. Sally Wife says she doesn't have a clue as to what I'm talking about. See if you have any better luck.

Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

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