A few weeks ago, coming on the heels of its report on General John W. Nicholson Jr.’s departure from the helm of America’s war effort in Afghanistan, the New York Times published three back-to-back articles on emerging threats elsewhere on the planet.
It’s coverage of China’s naval might in “the waters around Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea” was chilling, detailing a rapid shift in the prevailing balance of power in the Pacific.
It then published a report on China’s involvement in Russia’s “biggest military exercise since the height of the Cold War”, involving “nearly 300,000 Russian troops, 1,000 aircraft, and 900 tanks”… set to start, tellingly, on September 11th.
It followed these up with an article describing plans to restart military exercises on the Korean Peninsula. Great.
It’s becoming clear that the locus of America’s military focus is shifting from the Middle to the Far East… or, better stated, drawing nearer to our Nation’s west flank in the Pacific. These threats are not new; they can’t be deemed to be “emerging”, per se, so much as “rapidly developing”. The form of war that America may confront in the coming years will be different than that which has defined its past two decades, and certainly the nearly 30 years since the end of the Cold War. You could even say that the Cold War may be bracing for a second act.
Indeed, to turn a popular phrase: winter is coming.
It’s in the context of these shifting dangers that TJAG’s call to “Be Ready” becomes all the more salient. As legal professionals, Judge Advocates, Paralegals, and Legal Administrators must equip themselves to be the backbone of military law, to ensure that we understand the new rules and realities confronting the warfighter. Physically, mentally, professionally, we must be ready to meet the challenges as they come. The Army—its commanders and its warriors—will turn to us for guidance and support. We must be ready to provide it. Soldier First, Lawyer Always.