For the past three decades, the United States Air Force has successfully executed operational command and control through the processes and systems born and refined in the Air Operations Center (AOC). The AOC is how today’s Air Force fights at the operational level, and it works—today—but needs to evolve if it is to be relevant in the next fight.
With the rapid advancement of technology, Air Force missions are becoming increasingly dependent on cyberspace. These dependencies on networks and computers open up new attack vectors that adversaries can exploit to put our missions at risk. Aware of this threat, US Cyber Command created defensive teams under the Cyber Mission Force (CMF) construct to protect missions and defeat adversaries in cyberspace.
Lieutenant Colonel William Mitchell was a visionary air theorist in the early twentieth century whose ideas established the foundational aspects of American military airpower, especially during wartime. Many of his postulations guided the conduct of air campaigns during the conventional wars of last century. However, some of his estimates on the utilization of airpower were incorrect and did not consider the evolution of technology and the refinement of aerial and counter-air TTPs.
For the past generation, one of the key ideas of International Relations (IR) theory has been that of “Kantian peace.” Following its introduction by Michael Doyle in 1983, it became an empirical research paradigm intended to explain the relative peace of the modern era as well as the necessary conditions for unlocking peace in the future.
Inside the Air Force, efforts in addressing the challenges in diversity and inclusion (D&I) range from unit-wide stand-down days, the creation of barrier analysis working groups, to grassroots in-person small group discussions limited by the ongoing pandemic. While the world witnessed events such as the killing of George Floyd, the findings of the 2020 Inspector General Report, and the 2021 storming of the US Capitol, opportunities present themselves on accelerating change through innovating on how we currently handle discrimination in the Air Force. This paper aims to present the commander an instrument in producing a proactive rather than a reactive measure, as well as a framing a flexible unit-based tool versus a top-down structured mechanism in addressing issues of D&I.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Latin America has looked to the international community for support and found China ready and willing to lend a helping hand. The medical assistance that China has offered many Latin American countries has secured China promising inroads of soft power in the region, suggesting a grim future for the US’ ability to maintain hegemony in the region.
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