Tag defence

The Bus Stop Military-Industrial Complex

There’s something deeply unsettling about seeing defence contractors advertise on London buses like they’re selling meal delivery kits or productivity apps. Last week I was visiting London, England where I noticed an advertisement on one of London’s iconic red buses. Anduril—named after Aragorn’s sword in Lord of the Rings, because apparently nothing says “serious defence […]

Naïve Brilliance

If anything can be said in retrospect about Robert McNamara is not that he was hawkish, evil, corrupt or duplicitous, but that despite his sophistication, the statistical prowess and scientific rigour that he showed in his work, his all-around intellectual capacity (or perhaps, in a way just because of all these) he exemplified the naïve brilliance that often accompanies highly intelligent people that fail to take that macroscopic view and consider where they place their focus and energy and why they do so. His 2003 'apology' film, the Errol Morris documentary 'The Fog Of War', as well as his 1995 'In Retrospect' book, both indicate that wisdom came late to McNamara; a clear and very welcome difference, nevertheless, to most of his contemporaries.

Foreign Objects Prohibited

If there's ever going to be any sign of a fledging high technology defence industry in China, that'd be it. Building the Chinese Empire step by step.