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The determination that strategy should have a long-term predictive quality has left strategy seemingly wanting when having to address what are currently called 'strategic shocks', such as the recent Arab Spring and the NATO commitment to Libya. The focus on grand strategy, particularly in the US, is responsible for this trend. Its endeavour to mitigate risk in the national interest is inherently conservative, rather than opportunistic, and it is favoured and probably required by powers that are committed to the status quo, that need to manage diminishing resources, and that are dealing with relative decline. Strategy as traditionally but more narrowly defined by generals for use in a military context, is much more exploitative and proactive. Precisely because it is designed to be used in war it presumes that its function is offensive, that it will have to deal with chance and contingency, and that its aim is change. Its task is to deal with the uncertainties of war, and to respond to them while holding on to long-term perspectives. Clausewitz addressed the issue of 'war plans' in book VIII of On war, but the thinker who did most to inject planning into European strategic thought was Jomini. His influence has permeated much of American military thinking. The effect of nuclear planning in the Cold War was to ensure that strategy at the operational level became conflated with broader views of grand strategy - not least when the Cold War itself provided apparent continuity to strategic thought. Since 1990 we have been left with a view of strategy which fails to respond sensibly to chance and accident. Strategy needs context, and a sense of where and against whom it is to be applied. Its core task is to embrace contingency while holding on to long-term national interests. (International Affairs (Oxford) / SWP)

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International audience ; This article analyses specific acts of handwriting on paper in relation to digitization. It frames the artifact of the digital image of the handwritten note as a post-digital object, which is defined by the inseparability of analogue and digital and also highlights a relation to the digital in which internal opposition is a part of it. The article discusses the media function of post-digital contingency through two particular cases of handwriting on paper that circulates online. Firstly, it analyses post-digital handwriting in the political sphere using the example of the social media posting and sharing of Donald Trump's signature after he took presidential office. Secondly, it elaborates post-digital handwriting as an aesthetic phenomenon by discussing the Instagram account of renowned Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist who has posted nearly 4,500 handwritten notes to 320,000 followers over eight years. Finally, it places these discussions into the context of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger to arrive at a better understanding of how the ontological difference of post-digital handwriting is produced.

Acquisition research (Graduate School of Business & Public Policy) ; MBA Professional Report ; The purpose of this Master Business Administration (MBA) Professional Report is to investigate and analyze the means by which Contingency Contracting Officers (CCO) can effectively operate in a Joint contingency environment and to validate the Defense Contract Management Agency's (DCMA) entry and exit criteria for contingency contracting missions. Joint contingencies encompass regional conflicts, humanitarian and peacekeeping missions, and international or domestic disaster relief missions supported with the immediate deployment of military forces. This research was accomplished by reviewing the current guidance, policies, and doctrine pertinent to contingency contracting operations and conducting personal interviews. The researchers conducted interviews with representatives of the Joint Staff, J4 (Logistics), each Service Component's acquisition headquarters, U.S. Central Command's J4 (Logistics), U.S. Pacific Command's J4 (Logistics, Engineering, and Security Assistance), and the DCMA to explore how contingency contracting operations are planned and executed; current issues and lessons learned; and understand the current structure/organization of Service Component and Combatant Command for accomplishing contingency contracting. Conclusions and recommendations address perceived shortfalls in the methodologies the Services use to plan, communicate, integrate and execute contingency contracting operations. Three possible solutions to these shortfalls include adoption of the Yoder Three-Tier Model, establishment of the Joint Contingency Contracting Command (JCCC), and the creation of universal language for conducting contracting in contingencies. ; http://archive.org/details/jointcontingency10945460 ; Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

Drawing analogies between the global political situation in 1914 and the present misses the point: From its outbreak to its conclusion, the Great War was defined by uncertainty and accident.