Adm. Stavridis on NATO, SOUTHCOM, and USN Thought Leadership
(click for bio)
The Florida Times-Union offers an interview with Adm. James G. Stavridis, currently Commander of US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM, covers Latin America) and soon to take charge of United States European Command as (NATO) Supreme Allied Commander, Europe.
The full transcript discusses the role of the U.S. Navy now and in the future, Afghanistan and Colombia, what lies ahead for NATO, and the current state of US Navy thinking. Those comments are worthwhile reading in and of themselves, but the article adds even more value by including links to the works Stavridis cites as examples of good and thought-provoking work. That includes an April 2009 Proceedings article by serving US Navy Cmdr. Jerry Hendrix called “Buy Ford, Not Ferrari“, which argued for a restructured US Navy that places far less emphasis on nuclear carrier strike groups, and redeploys the ones it retains.
The Hendrix article is part of a larger debate about the future Navy’s force structure, and DID has carried a range of voices, from CSIS criticism to current shipbuilding plans, to the late Adm. Cebrowski’s 2005 Alternative Fleet Architecure study [PDF] to the Heritage Foundation’s recent exposition of their QDR recommendations in “USA: A 21st Century Maritime Posture for an Uncertain Future.”
