Jeff Meiser
@jwmeiser.bsky.social
Former war college professor NDU now UPortland. Tweets on politics, IR, strategy, hip hop. Book: Power and Restraint. My views rep only me.
Pinned
Jeff Meiser
@jwmeiser.bsky.social
· May 3
Bringing a Method to the Strategy Madness - War on the Rocks
Almost 10 years ago I penned a strategy article inspiring ad hominem attacks, the suggestion by former colleagues that I had written something akin to The
warontherocks.com
Okay strategy nerds this one is for you.
“Bringing Method to the Strategy Madness”
warontherocks.com/2024/05/brin...
“Bringing Method to the Strategy Madness”
warontherocks.com/2024/05/brin...
I’m guess college is the new high school. Like a high school diploma means you have a 5th grade education.
marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevo...
marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevo...
UCSD Faculty Sound Alarm on Declining Student Skills - Marginal REVOLUTION
The UC San Diego Senate Report on Admissions documents a sharp decline in students’ math and reading skills—a warning that has been sounded before, but this time it’s coming from within the building. ...
marginalrevolution.com
November 13, 2025 at 3:52 AM
I’m guess college is the new high school. Like a high school diploma means you have a 5th grade education.
marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevo...
marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevo...
There were precious reports of follow on strikes to kill survivors. In this case Navy picked up survivors. Why?
Also SOUTHCOM commander just resigned.
Is there a backstory here?
Also SOUTHCOM commander just resigned.
Is there a backstory here?
WHOA. The AP reports that in the latest strike on a boat alleged to be carrying drug smugglers (which has never been proven), there were actually survivors, and they've been rescued.
The Pentagon has yet to formally acknowledge they have survivors in custody.
apnews.com/article/vene...
The Pentagon has yet to formally acknowledge they have survivors in custody.
apnews.com/article/vene...
US has seized survivors after strike on suspected drug-carrying vessel in Caribbean, AP sources say
The U.S. has seized survivors after a strike on a suspected drug-carrying vessel in the Caribbean, the first since President Donald Trump began launching deadly attacks in the region this summer.
apnews.com
October 17, 2025 at 4:58 PM
There were precious reports of follow on strikes to kill survivors. In this case Navy picked up survivors. Why?
Also SOUTHCOM commander just resigned.
Is there a backstory here?
Also SOUTHCOM commander just resigned.
Is there a backstory here?
Colin Dueck wrote a book The Obama Doctrine in which he argues Obama was a feckless political hack who nefariously politicized foreign policy.
I wonder what Professor Dueck is up to these days?
I wonder what Professor Dueck is up to these days?
October 16, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Colin Dueck wrote a book The Obama Doctrine in which he argues Obama was a feckless political hack who nefariously politicized foreign policy.
I wonder what Professor Dueck is up to these days?
I wonder what Professor Dueck is up to these days?
DoD renaming to DoW is the apogee of GWOT lethality cult thinking
I read the WAPO piece defending the DoD renaming, and this might be one of the most pathetic mainstream media takes of the year:
"If those troops are commanded by the War Department, rather than the Defense Department, might it prompt more opposition to their deployment?"
Pure magical thinking.
"If those troops are commanded by the War Department, rather than the Defense Department, might it prompt more opposition to their deployment?"
Pure magical thinking.
September 10, 2025 at 3:47 PM
DoD renaming to DoW is the apogee of GWOT lethality cult thinking
Today’s WTF moment
“the aim was to infiltrate Greenland's society and promote its secession from Denmark to the US”
www.bbc.com/news/article...
“the aim was to infiltrate Greenland's society and promote its secession from Denmark to the US”
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Greenland: Denmark summons top US diplomat over alleged influence operation
The aim was reportedly to infiltrate Greenland's society and promote its secession from Denmark.
www.bbc.com
August 27, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Today’s WTF moment
“the aim was to infiltrate Greenland's society and promote its secession from Denmark to the US”
www.bbc.com/news/article...
“the aim was to infiltrate Greenland's society and promote its secession from Denmark to the US”
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Jeff Meiser
“It has been clear from Israeli actions as well as the rhetoric of numerous Israeli officials that Israel’s war is not simply against Hamas but aimed at all the residents of Gaza,” writes Robert Pape.
The Unparalleled Devastation of Gaza
Why punishing civilians has not yielded strategic success.
www.foreignaffairs.com
August 19, 2025 at 7:06 PM
“It has been clear from Israeli actions as well as the rhetoric of numerous Israeli officials that Israel’s war is not simply against Hamas but aimed at all the residents of Gaza,” writes Robert Pape.
New article documenting attacks on academic freedom in the DoD
www.advancejournal.org/article/1431...
www.advancejournal.org/article/1431...
Eroding Critical Thinking: The Quiet Dismantling of Academic Freedom in the Department of Defense | Published in ADVANCE Journal
By Nellie Fly, Alvaro Shakes & 1 more. This manuscript asserts the position that recent executive orders and DoD mandates have narrowed DoD teaching and inquiry —namely, the development of critical th...
www.advancejournal.org
August 19, 2025 at 7:10 PM
New article documenting attacks on academic freedom in the DoD
www.advancejournal.org/article/1431...
www.advancejournal.org/article/1431...
I’m surprised by the WOTR battle studies series because I thought batttles didn’t matter?
Or maybe not everyone drank the koolaid?
warontherocks.com/2025/08/the-...
Or maybe not everyone drank the koolaid?
warontherocks.com/2025/08/the-...
The Importance of the Battle of Leuthen - War on the Rocks
In the snowy evening of Dec. 5, 1757, a Prussian grenadier sang out the chorus of the hymn Nun danket alle Gott (“Now Thank We All Our God”), and was
warontherocks.com
August 18, 2025 at 2:29 PM
I’m surprised by the WOTR battle studies series because I thought batttles didn’t matter?
Or maybe not everyone drank the koolaid?
warontherocks.com/2025/08/the-...
Or maybe not everyone drank the koolaid?
warontherocks.com/2025/08/the-...
💀💀💀
Born too late to do presence patrols in Baghdad
Born just in time to do presence patrols on the Mall
Born just in time to do presence patrols on the Mall
August 13, 2025 at 7:09 AM
💀💀💀
100% co-sign this thread
There are multiple ongoing conflicts that are equally as disastrous in terms of humanitarian suffering and countless examples in recent memory.
Israel’s actions in Gaza aren’t really outside the norm in conflicts. But it is far outside the norms of what we expect from governments we support.
Israel’s actions in Gaza aren’t really outside the norm in conflicts. But it is far outside the norms of what we expect from governments we support.
Israel’s war in Gaza combines a staggeringly high death rate, shocking violence toward children, unparalleled physical destruction, and now a world-historical famine.
The world has, by objective measure, never seen anything like this.
The world has, by objective measure, never seen anything like this.
August 7, 2025 at 12:39 AM
100% co-sign this thread
“In our planning process, assumptions are assertions about a future condition, upon which the plan is based”
Hmm, “assertions about a future condition”?
Does he mean if-then statements, if we do x then y will happen?
Hmm, “assertions about a future condition”?
Does he mean if-then statements, if we do x then y will happen?
August 5, 2025 at 11:21 PM
“In our planning process, assumptions are assertions about a future condition, upon which the plan is based”
Hmm, “assertions about a future condition”?
Does he mean if-then statements, if we do x then y will happen?
Hmm, “assertions about a future condition”?
Does he mean if-then statements, if we do x then y will happen?
Gen. McKenzie: “The Doha agreement signed in February 2020 was, to use a phrase from our operational jargon, the proximate ‘defeat mechanism’ that brought down the Afghan government”
August 5, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Gen. McKenzie: “The Doha agreement signed in February 2020 was, to use a phrase from our operational jargon, the proximate ‘defeat mechanism’ that brought down the Afghan government”
Gen. McKenzie says we lost in AFG because of the Taliban sanctuary in Pakistan.
He also says it’s Tommy Frank’s fault we didn’t get bin Laden at Tora Bora in 2001.
He also says it’s Tommy Frank’s fault we didn’t get bin Laden at Tora Bora in 2001.
August 5, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Gen. McKenzie says we lost in AFG because of the Taliban sanctuary in Pakistan.
He also says it’s Tommy Frank’s fault we didn’t get bin Laden at Tora Bora in 2001.
He also says it’s Tommy Frank’s fault we didn’t get bin Laden at Tora Bora in 2001.
Reposted by Jeff Meiser
US bureau of statistics next year:
August 2, 2025 at 1:32 AM
US bureau of statistics next year:
Love this thread
BRING BACK THE DRAFT
August 1, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Love this thread
Trump lawsuit against Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward dismissed
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Trump lawsuit against Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward dismissed
The judge in the case said Trump failed to “plausibly” show that he and Woodward intended to be co-authors of an audiobook, or that Trump had any copyright interest in his responses.
www.washingtonpost.com
July 19, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Trump lawsuit against Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward dismissed
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
“In the first half of the conflict, 8% of Iran’s missiles slipped through Israel’s defenses. By the second half of the war, 16% got past Israel’s interceptors”
“on June 22, two days before the end of the war… 10 out of 27 missiles hit Israel”
www.wsj.com/world/middle...
“on June 22, two days before the end of the war… 10 out of 27 missiles hit Israel”
www.wsj.com/world/middle...
Through Trial and Error, Iran Found Gaps in Israel’s Storied Air Defenses
The proportion of missiles that slipped through doubled during the 12-day war, data show, as Tehran found vulnerabilities through trial and error.
www.wsj.com
July 16, 2025 at 4:33 PM
“In the first half of the conflict, 8% of Iran’s missiles slipped through Israel’s defenses. By the second half of the war, 16% got past Israel’s interceptors”
“on June 22, two days before the end of the war… 10 out of 27 missiles hit Israel”
www.wsj.com/world/middle...
“on June 22, two days before the end of the war… 10 out of 27 missiles hit Israel”
www.wsj.com/world/middle...
So “four alternative concepts” are articulated as force levels and what those force levels can do without really saying much about the logic behind these different “concepts” or how the goals or methods are different.
I’d rather get alternative strategies that foreground the goals and causal logic.
I’d rather get alternative strategies that foreground the goals and causal logic.
July 10, 2025 at 8:53 PM
So “four alternative concepts” are articulated as force levels and what those force levels can do without really saying much about the logic behind these different “concepts” or how the goals or methods are different.
I’d rather get alternative strategies that foreground the goals and causal logic.
I’d rather get alternative strategies that foreground the goals and causal logic.
I feel like deterrence has not been restored
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Yemen Houthis sink second Red Sea cargo ship in a week
At least three of the 25 people on board the Eternity C were killed after it was attacked by the Iran-backed group.
www.bbc.com
July 10, 2025 at 12:40 AM
I feel like deterrence has not been restored
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...