- Counterinsurgency and the Stabilization Phase
- The Role of Simulation When Preparing Task-Forces before Deployments
- IED Warfare Doctrine: an Ever Evolving Doctrine
- The Legal Bases for the Commitment in Afghanistan
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
New Issue of Doctrine (from the French Army) is out
In the email this morning, a notice from the Armée de Terre that Doctrine n. 17: The Commitment of French Land Forces in Afghanistan is out. Since I know there is interest out there on what the French are writing on all of this, I thought I would post a link. Obviously, I haven't read it yet (I opened it and it's clear they need an English editor) but this is the table of contents:
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Wow. Gulliver gets a shout-out on page 9.
ReplyDeleteWow. Gulliver gets a shout-out on page 9.
ReplyDeleteHa. Awesome. Nice catch.
Forgive my Francophone ignorance here, but how does a dude end up named Anne-Henry?
ReplyDeleteYou end up with that kind of name when you're from an old French family and your parents decide that your name should honor some family members.
ReplyDeleteI particularly admire the new Ink Spots' policy of posting doctrinal publications the Ink Spotties don't read.
ReplyDeleteSNLII
I particularly admire the new Ink Spots' policy of posting doctrinal publications the Ink Spotties don't read.
ReplyDeleteI particularly admire SNLII's new policy of offering constructive criticism and commentary like "there's been a draft of that out for a while" without suggesting any additional insights about the content.
Sometimes, Gulliver, the polite thing to do is not offer an opinion, lest one sound all cranky and constipated.
ReplyDeleteAlso, sometimes, one has made certain contributions to some doctrinal publications, including criticism, and one doesn't wish for this to get out.
SNLII
Sometimes, Gulliver, the polite thing to do is not offer an opinion, lest one sound all cranky and constipated.
ReplyDeleteWait, seriously, when did you decide that sounding cranky and constipated wasn't your thing?
Ink Spots crew and the rest -
ReplyDeleteWent to see Gen Petraeus at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. I quite liked the venue and the nature of the event, which was really just a question and answer session. Only ONE Powerpoint slide!
Anyway, at the end of the talk, the General was ushered out as we all stood and clapped and a woman sitting in my row at the far end of the hall where there were few of us (but the event was packed over all - 1500 people they said) dashed up and asked him to sign the COIN manual she had in her hand.
He graciously did so and when she came back to her seat near me, she told her companion (husband, boyfriend?) that she was kind of embarrassed and maybe shouldn't have done that.
She was so artless and unaffected that I kind of like her for that. Everyone else stood around quite formally - it was a well-healed Chicago crowd.
The book was dogeared and well-thumbed over, from the look of it, because of course I went over to her and said, "did he sign your book?" so that I could see what he had signed.
Quite a nice crowd.
(He mentioned what a tough day if was in Afghanistan, yesterday, and the generally genial nature of the event stopped in its tracks for a bit. Everyone was quiet.)
Thanks for sharing that story, Madhu.
ReplyDeleteSort of hilarious when you reflect on it: superstar general autographing Army doctrine. And we thought it was crazy when they found a civilian publisher!
Because I am a shallow person, I didn't bother telling you that I payed a lot of attention to what people were wearing, what purses they carried, the look of the "like a hip young nightclub" look of the lobby at the Fairmont, and the fact that you can see Aqua (condo-highrise extraordinaire) when you walk out of the lobby.
ReplyDeleteOh wait, I just did.
I tell you, if I lived in DC I would blog events in such a different way than most DC bloggers....
- Madhu
SNLII--first of all, I didn't post doctrine, I posted a link to something like Joint Force Quarterly (though it's just Army so I don't know what that would be). It's a new issue, it's in readable English and since I keep being asked if there are places to read about French thinking on deployment to Afghanistan, I thought I would provide the link. Commentary can wait...or if you have time to read it, perhaps you can tell us what you think?
ReplyDeleteMadhu--cool story. It was a nice thing for him to do.
Ok, back to redrafting. I need to get this thing out the door.
It's always been my assumption that nobody reads doctrine, other than the people who write it and the people who report on it. The former have sunk so much time and effort into it that they're irrationally chained to its concepts and the latter are such clueless dilettantes that they don't know how to decipher it. The rest of us might skim it quickly, but largely pick it up through non-written means.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to bother to read what you just wrote, Lil, but I will repost it.
ReplyDeletehttp://tachesdhuile.blogspot.com/2010/05/new-issue-of-doctrine-from-french-army.html#comments
Yes, I'm just being waggish.
SNLII