Greetings dear CCLKOW readers and discussants. This week’s post differs from the norm in that it is not necessarily short term discussion based. Rather, like last’s week’s piece from Company Command, its aim is about the longer term conversational arc for the series. In this case the focus is specifically on the matter of professional military education. There are no particular questions posed, discussion in this case being driven by recommendations and interest.
I have been interested in professional military education for as long as I have been in military history and defence affairs. Its content interests me in detail and for its expression of policy and intent. I have worked across various parts of it in the US and now here in the UK. My thesis research relied upon its 19th and 20th century emergence as a key piece in the development of the logistics of industrial warfare. I have also sat in as a student in much of a standard war college course. In sum, it is a critical junction of scholarship, practice, and policy, as important to security and defence as it is to research.
For the purposes of this blog, when I speak of professional military education (PME) I mean the schoolhouses of the field grade ranks. The modern military school system which comes under this umbrella was borne of an era in which the operations of the line units exceeded the direct control of the army or campaign commander. War’s complexity increased first in the Napoleonic Wars as the nation in toto could be leveraged to increase manpower. This was followed by the complexity which the increasing mass that industrialisation enabled. To meet the widening spectrum of subject matter competencies which modern warfare required, PME evolved early to comprise a mix of academic and military subject matters. By the end of WWI, the educational scheme which an American or a British practitioner would generally recognize today had taken form, even as it continues to modify and reform itself according to changing needs.
If we are faced with an evolving character of warfare, it seems only fitting to examine the contours of the education which is meant to sustain the martial intellect. As such, it is my interest to bring more pieces on issues relevant to PME to CCLKOW and Kings of War. While I have some ideas in mind and plans in place, I would like to hear from a wider audience the PME topics and issues of concern. And so, this week’s discussion is a response to a that simple request.
Give a thought and add your views on Twitter at #CCLKOW.
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Mr Orban announcing Hungary's migration referendum in Budapest on Wednesday
Now it’s Hungary’s turn. Viktor Orban, the polarising Hungarian premier, announced yesterday that his country would be holding a referendum on whether it should be forced to take in refugees as part of EU policies to relieve Greece and other overwhelmed frontier countries suffering the biggest influxes of migrants from the war-torn Middle East. By our count, that would make five countries holding referenda on EU policies in the course of about a year: Greece’s “oxi” on a the terms of a third eurozone bailout; Denmark’s “no” on opting-in to EU policing and judicial policies; an upcoming April Dutch referendum on the EU integration deal with Ukraine; Britain’s June plebiscite on EU membership; and now Mr Orban’s migration poll.
Throw in two more referenda – an Italian one in October on a non-EU domestic reform issue, and the always referendum-happy (but non-EU member) Switzerland – and you have a continent that seems to have gone delirious for direct democracy. As Tom Nuttall, the Economist’s Brussels-based Charlemagne columnist, pointed out in January, it’s not as if referenda are a new phenomenon. But when political leaders begin applying it to EU policies – which are always the product of multilateral horse-trading in Brussels – it could grind the already slow-moving European legislative machine-work to a halt.
In some ways, the rash of referenda is a bit of birds coming home to roost. Founders of the European project were overtly elitist about how they went about integration. “I thought it wrong to consult the peoples of Europe about the structure of a community of which they had no practical experience,” Jean Monnet, the intellectual godfather of the EU, once famously said. In more recent times, referenda results were either worked around – after France and the Netherlands rejected the EU’s “constitutional treaty” in 2005 it was largely rebranded the “Lisbon treaty” with tweaks that made plebiscites unnecessary – or re-run. Ireland voted twice on both the Nice and Lisbon treaties after rejecting them the first time around.
Read moreBrazília kommunikációs minisztere, Andre Figueirdo arra vonatkozó terveket jelentett be, hogy egy új tengeralatti adatkábellel kötnék össze Brazíliát közvetlen Európával, hogy így ellensúlyozzák az amerikai elektronikus kémkedést.
Mercredi 24 février 2016, Laurence Daziano était l’invitée de Thierry Garcin dans l’émission « Les Enjeux internationaux » sur France Culture.
Cet article France Culture – Laurence Daziano invitée à l’émission « Les Enjeux internationaux » est apparu en premier sur Fondapol.
Despite its undoubted transformative potential, there still exists large swathes of people in the Brussels Bubble who just ‘don’t get’ Twitter. As a social strategist I sometimes find that pretty frustrating; there are so many great things which industries, associations and individuals could be doing, but there is just such little appetite for them. The challenge is to demonstrate to the bubble just how easy, accessible and effective Twitter is.
Although everybody knows that Twitter should be part of a successful public affairs strategy, many just don’t know how. To understand, we need to stop viewing it as this newfangled, modern tool and realize that it’s the same as other broadcasting platforms which we’ve been using for years. To explain, here are 3 similarities between Twitter and radio which demonstrate just how easy it is to build a successful social media strategy for your clients.
In Radio, the most popular stations are often those with a clear and accessible offering. Popular stations are successful in part because they are synonymous with certain values, messages and content and they are consistent in the way they communicate all of these things. The same is true for Twitter. Too many accounts are run without a clear objective and so don’t stand out. Users who have a clear “brand” are typically successful and that’s because they have identified what works for them and have repeated it.
Having a clear direction is the starting point, but it is increasingly not enough. In radio, there are a plethora of stations which occupy the same space, playing the same music and interviewing the same artists. Popular stations have to find a way to stand out. Twitter users are faced with the same problem. As I mentioned in my last post (and as our team constantly say to clients) in 2016 it’s not enough to just write tweets. Just like the best radio stations use quizzes, phone-ins and features to stand out, so Twitter users need to be bolder and more creative when it comes to communicating.
The best radio stations are those that develop content which speaks to their own niche audience. If a station which specialized in classical music suddenly started playing Kanye West, their audience would quickly lose interest- no matter how good Ye’s songs may be. As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, this also applies for Twitter. Interaction with an audience is useless unless it’s targeted and tailored to suit their needs. Otherwise they won’t be interested in what you say and if they’re not interested in what you say then you may as well not be tweeting to them at all.
As you can see, the similarities are as simple as they are obvious. Despite this, the majority of Twitter accounts in Brussels lack direction, produce little to no cutting edge content and fail to target their audience.
So, next time you’re typing out a tweet, think about how you can learn from your favourite radio station. If you do, you’re more likely to achieve your objective- and that’s always a good thing.
Mercredi 24 février 2016, Mustapha Cherif était l'invité de TV5 Monde dans l'émission « Grand Angle » consacrée à l’Émir Abdelkader.
Cet article TV5 Monde – Mustapha Cherif invité à l’émission « Grand Angle » est apparu en premier sur Fondapol.