Saturday, 27 April 2024
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    Pete O'Brien ─ Author

    Mr. O’Brien retired from the US Navy after 28 years of service spent across much of the Middle East and North Africa, South East Asia and East Asia, participating in a wide range of tactical operations with some of our nations finest Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines. In that time he was fortunate to only have a single shore tour in the continental United States! Since retiring from the Navy he has provided planning and mentoring to a number of Fortune 1,000 Corporations, to several cabinet level officers in several administrations, and contributed to several Washington DC based centers active in support of foreign policy formulation and providing support to the Defense Department and the Intelligence Community. Mr. O’Brien has graduate degrees in Space Systems and in International Security Studies, and is a Distinguished Graduate of the Naval War College. His undergraduate degree is from Georgetown University.

    Latest Articles by Author

    Putin, Xi, and the Pirate King

    In the news this week, Alexei Navalny, the dissident Russian politician who was serving 30 years in an Arctic Gulag, died. Navalny was a longtime rival of Tsar Vlad, had campaigned against corruption - Putin’s corruption - and after returning to Russia in 2021, had been found guilty of “extremism” and “fraud” - what were clearly nonsense charges, and sentenced to 30 years in prison. 

    To Deter

    There has been some interesting talk in the past week about deterrence and escalation and proportionality and I’m beginning to wonder if those words still mean what I thought they mean, like the word “secret” on the front page of a newspaper. But it’s important to review what they really mean because getting this wrong can have significant consequences.

    Strategic Vision in Wonderland 

    We created a Constitution - a remarkable feat, a document that was the envy of the world for 220 years - and still is if you want the root explanation of why millions of people are trying to get into the US and not so much anywhere else. (How many people tried to sneak into China last year?) 

    Good Government by Peter O’Brien

    There’s an old adage that if something is “stupid but works, it’s not stupid.” There is, of course, a corollary, that if something is...

    Great Power Struggle by Peter O’Brien

    People don’t change, as a friend reminded me just the other day. 800 years ago the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Moscow wanted...

    Tyranny or Liberty? by Peter O’Brien

    A really smart friend of mine once noted, while speaking of the DOD: “You need to remember that we don’t do why!” Joe’s point was...

    Socialism and Motherhood by Peter O’Brien

    There’s been a lot of talk about Socialism and Socialists of late, with several being elected to Congress. All this even as Venezuela -...