ASPJ Home Page

Volume 33 Issue 2, Summer 2019

  • Published
  • Air & Space Power Journal, Air University, Maxwell AFB, AL
  • SENIOR LEADER PERSPECTIVE
  • View Article

    Great Leaders Follow First:
    Nine Rules for Dynamic Followership

    Maj Gen Michael D. Rothstein, USAF
    As military professionals, we love to talk about leadership. This focus on leadership, however, may induce a blind spot: every single one of us is first and always a follower. We all have a boss. We all report to someone. Our senior leaders remind us—and rightfully so—that our Airmen deserve great leaders.
  • FEATURE ARTICLES
  • A Commander’s First Challenge: Building Trust

    Lt Col Jesper R. Stubbendorff, USAF
    Robert E. Overstreet, PhD

    Leadership is the most important characteristic that a commander brings to an organization. To be an effective leader, a military commander must have a relationship with followers, and the key to that relationship is trust. The problem for commanders is that it is extremely difficult to build trusting relationships because of the limited duration of command, transient nature of military personnel, and deployment of individual military members versus an entire organization.
  • Aligning Air Force Leadership Roles:
    The Limitations of Enlisted Empowerment

    SMSgt Ryan T. McClary, USAF
    The Military Pay Act of 1958 began the Air Force employment of enlisted empowerment, and this ideology expanded into the current assignment of enlisted leaders into strategic leadership roles. Conversely, the Air Force organizational power structure has remained unchanged with the power necessary to fulfill strategic functions solely reserved for the commissioned officer ranks.
  • Rescuing Icarus: The Problems and Possibilities of “Air-Mindedness”

    Lt Col Jason M. Trew, USAF, PhD
    Current US Air Force doctrine associates air-mindedness with functional expertise. This connotation is too narrow because it focuses only on the pragmatic aspects of airpower. This article argues for a broader definition that restores the psychological dimension, which was integral to the term’s historical meaning.
  • VIEWS
  • View Article

    The Potentiality of Space Enterprise Force Reconstitution: Nationalizing Civilian Satellites during Kinetic Conflicts

    Sara Schmitt
    Maj Robert A. Bettinger, USAF, PhD

    The patent recognition of space as an operational domain requires new strategies to contend with not only an evolving counterspace threat landscape, but also the necessities of satellite reconstitution during conflict. This article will explore the possibility of instituting a policy of civilian satellite nationalization as a means of US Space Enterprise force reconstitution to ensure continued access to space capabilities requisite for the execution of US military, foreign policy, and domestic security objectives.
  • View Article

    Fortifying Remote Warriors: Addressing Wellness Issues among Intelligence Airmen

    Capt Tyler Tennies, USAF
    Many people refer to Airmen’s minds as their most valuable weapon, and this is especially true when referencing our intelligence specialists. However, many of our intelligence Airmen are not operating at their peak mental performance. In 2017, the author assumed a flight of intelligence Airmen in remote combat operations. As their flight commander, he noticed a number of wellness issues that included insomnia, fatigue, depression, poor physical fitness, and discipline. 

  • COMMENTARY
  • View Article

    Insider Attack, Strategic Impact: Kabul, 27 April 2011

    Forrest L. Marion, PhD
    Normally, insider attacks are dealt with mainly as tactical incidents rather than events with an impact at a higher level of warfare. This article examines one case in which an insider attack—the 27 April 2011 killing of nine US air advisors at Kabul International Airport—appeared to hold not only tactical but operational-strategic, significance.

  • BOOK REVIEWS
  • View Book Review

    Gear Up, Mishaps Down: The Evolution of Naval Aviation Safety, 1950–2000

    Robert F. Dunn
    Reviewer: John L. Mahaffey, PhD
    Gear Up, Mishaps Down, The Evolution of Naval Aviation Safety is a first- person historical account of the evolution of flight safety for US Navy aviation during the period 1950 to 2000. My initial interest was due in no small part to a personal connection with the subject. 

  • View Book Review

    Limiting Risk in America’s Wars: Airpower, Asymmetrics, and a New Strategic Paradigm

    Phillip S. Meilinger
    Reviewer: Maj Matthew C. Wunderlich, USAF
    Limiting Risk in America’s Wars: Airpower, Asymmetrics, and a New Strategic Paradigm is Phillip Meilinger’s argument for an airpower- oriented strategy in modern conflicts. In this book, Meilinger effectively presents a history of limited warfare and the requirement for a deliberate strategy to optimize airpower employment and refine America’s approach to military operations. 

  • View Book Review

    Airpower Applied: U.S., NATO, and Israeli Combat Experience

    Edited by John Andreas Olsen
    Reviewer: Col Jamie Sculerati, USAF, Retired
    Col John Andreas Olsen, Royal Norwegian Air Force, has carved a niche for himself in airpower literature, publishing several volumes on the strategic effects of airpower and airpower advocates throughout the history of modern warfare. His latest is in the same vein and revisits some of the same ground covered in his A History of Air Warfare, albeit in more detail. 

  • View Book Review

    Dragon's Wings: Chinese Fighter and Bomber Aircraft Development

    Andreas Rupprecht
    Reviewer: 1st Lt Christopher A. Sargent, USAF
    Dragon Wings: Chinese Fighter and Bomber Aircraft Development is a history of Chinese military aircraft development, acquisition, and modification from the declaration of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 to the current day. Andreas Rupprecht authored multiple books and articles on Chinese aviation development and is recognized as an expert on the subject. 

  • View Book Review

    1001 Aviation Facts

    Edited by Mike Machat
    Reviewer: Maj Jack Nelson, USAF
    1001 Aviation Facts is an enjoyable, light read that will please any aviation enthusiast. Collectively written by eight aviation buffs, the book reflects the authors’ subject matter expertise in military and civilian flying, writing, aviation art, and aircraft modeling. The book is organized categorically into sections, aptly opening with “The Beginning.” 

  • View Book Review

    Zeppelins Over the Midlands: The Air Raids of 31 January 1916

    Mick Powis
    Reviewer: Maj Timothy Heck, USMCR
    Before Guernica, Coventry, and Dresden, there were the Zeppelins. Before Giulio Douhet wrote The Command of the Air, there were the Zeppelins. Before Stanley Baldwin’s speech ominously promising that the bomber will always get through, there were the Zeppelins. 

DOWNLOAD FULL EDITION

PDF ICON

Join the Airpower Dialogue

Read what Air and Space Power Journal readers and web site visitors have to say.  We welcome your comments and suggestions.  Visit the Air University Press on FacebookFacebook Logoand Join the Airpower Dialogue.

Connect with Us

Resources

Air University Press Logo