T. S. Allen, RealClearDefense

T. S. Allen

RealClearDefense

Washington, DC, United States

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Recent:
  • Unknown
Past:
  • RealClearDefense
  • Modern War Institute
  • Wall Street Journal

Past articles by T.:

How the Army Out-Innovated the ISISs Drones

Overall, U.S. forces “had an overwhelming success rate in either repelling, shooting down, or chasing away the majority of [ISIL drones] in Iraq and Syria [from 2016 to 2018] before they could h → Read More

War Books: A Bookshelf for Competition with China

These days, every military command needs its resident “subject matter expert” on the People’s Republic of China. China’s vast global reach and the importance of competition with China in the National Security Strategy mean having an analyst familiar with Chinese issues is critical even if you are on the other side of the world from […] → Read More

War Books: Close Combat Lethality

War Books: Close Combat Lethality | RealClearDefense → Read More

War Books: Close Combat Lethality

One of the best noncommissioned officers I know was recently selected to join the Close Combat Lethality Task Force, an organization established by former Secretary of Defense James Mattis in 2018 to “improve the combat, lethality, survivability, resiliency and readiness of U.S. infantry squads.” No infantry squad ever won a skirmish by reading a book, […] → Read More

Task Force Smith and the Problem with “Readiness”

In the rainy predawn darkness of July 5, 1950, two US Army rifles companies reinforced by six howitzers—about four hundred men in all—dug in on a saddle-shaped hill straddling a highway just north of Osan, South Korea. The hill was an outstanding north-facing defensive position: to this day, a soldier on that hill can see […] → Read More

War Books: How to Win a Land War in Asia

The only test of generalship is success, and I had succeeded in nothing I had attempted. — The future Field Marshal Viscount Slim, then commanding British Empire forces in Burma, 1942 Every American strategist knows the famous warning: “Don’t fight a land war in Asia.” Unfortunately, sometimes they are unavoidable. Fortunately, on balance Western … → Read More

Don’t Bring a Knife to a Gunfight With China

Even after two frustrating decades of counterinsurgency campaigns, some American military thinkers want more of the same. Their argument typically goes something like this: high-intensity warfare... → Read More

War Books: Russian Information Warfare

In 2011, a Russian Ministry of Defense white paper defined information warfare “as the ability to . . . undermine political, economic, and social systems; carry out mass psychological campaigns against the population of a state in order to destabilize society and the government; and force a state to make decisions in the interest of their opponents.” Russian … → Read More

Where Posting Selfies on Facebook Can Get You Killed

Enemies have targeted U.S. military assets with the help of social media. → Read More

How Can the United States Defeat North Korea’s “Attack Diplomacy”?

President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un met this week in Singapore for the first summit between American and North Korean heads of state. While the response among observers has ranged from cautious optimism through skepticism to outright criticism, there is little doubt that the summit signals a momentous sea change in US-North Korean … → Read More

The Once and Future Infowars

David Patrikarakos, War in 140 Characters: How Social Media is Reshaping Conflict in the Twenty-First Century (Basic Books, 2017). Violence, like Twitter, is a means of communication. If we do not understand it as such, its place in international relations makes no sense. As Thomas Schelling wrote in 1966: “The power to hurt is bargaining power. To exploit it is diplomacy — vicious diplomacy,… → Read More

Pipedreams and Policy: The Problem with Hoping for North Korea’s Collapse

In Congressional testimony earlier this month, former North Korean deputy ambassador to London and prominent defector Thae Yong-ho argued that North Korea is succeeding in implementing its military strategy but is vulnerable economically. As Mr. Thae sees it, Kim Jong-un’s singular goal is to use his nuclear missiles to force America out of East Asia … → Read More

The Problem With Hoping for North Korea’s Collapse

The Problem With Hoping for North Korea’s Collapse | RealClearDefense → Read More

The War North Korea Wants

No one is surprised anymore when North Korea threatens the United States and its allies. After nearly seventy years of incessant threats and provocations, their angry rhetoric is par for the course. Many think those threats are meaningless. According to the conventional wisdom, North Korea knows that America would certainly defeat it in a war … → Read More

The War North Korea Wants

No one is surprised anymore when North Korea threatens the United States and its allies. After nearly seventy years of incessant threats and provocations, their angry rhetoric is par for the course.... → Read More