The "Conference Room" posts e-mail responses to, and comments upon, work published in the Naval War College Review, selected at the sole discretion of the editor. It supplements the print “In My View” department by allowing more timely and responsive conversations about subjects raised in the Review than is possible in the pages of a quarterly. Postings in the Conference Room do not now appear in print (though some may ultimately be printed as letters to the editor, etc.) Items submitted for posting should be sent to conferenceroom@usnwc.edu; have "CONFERENCE ROOM" as their subject line (or otherwise make clear that they are intended for posting); and must be brief. Those selected for posting by the editor may be lightly edited for concision and clarity; no responses will be sent to contributors of items not selected for posting; posted items will be removed without notice at the discretion of the editor.
Responses
On David Rosenberg, “The Political Economy of Piracy in the South China Sea,” Summer 2009 NWCR
A comment on David Rosenberg's excellent article on Piracy in South China Sea. Dr. Rosenberg is spot on when he identifies institutional insularity as a problem in combating piracy. It is also a very large problem in a whole host of other challenges. In my opinion, based on 34 years of active duty service in the U.S. Navy with recent experience as a senior officer in several Joint or Interagency assignments, institutional insularity is worse in the U.S. government than any other institution I can think of with the possible exceptions of the United Nations and the European Union. An encouraging indicator that U.S. government leaders recognize just how big this problem is and how many resources it wastes is reflected in apparent agreement by current Secretaries of State and Defense to improve the effectiveness of U.S. government influence in international affairs by better use of soft power in place of more traditional use of hard power which usually depends on U.S. military forces. In today's Washington Post there is an article about National Security Council leadership advocating economic development in Afghanistan over increased U.S. military force presence in Afghanistan which illustrates this point.
BEN WACHENDORF
RADM USN (Ret)
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