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An interesting piece from the Waterloo REgion Record
http://www.therecord.com/opinion-story/5251009-air-power-becoming-the-new-gunboat-diplomacy/
Air power becoming the new gunboat diplomacy
Fighter aircraft probing air defences, expanded surveillance and reconnaissance missions, extended long-range nuclear bomber patrols — they are all part of the new lingua franca of East-West diplomacy.
"East-West relations" is itself once more a term of art in global affairs as Moscow, Washington and Brussels take up their quarrels and rely increasingly on military gestures to do the talking for them. The ostensible point is to communicate strength and resolve, but there is an unavoidable subtext of impotence in posing threats you know you can't ever carry out.
Military symbolism is now literally in full flight. In the dominant western narrative, Russian flights are provocative and dangerous; in the East it's the reverse, with NATO the provocateur. From Europe to the Arctic to North America, over land and sea, air power diplomacy has taken centre stage.
Russian fighters buzz Canadian frigates in the Black Sea and pose dangers to civilian air traffic over the Baltic Sea. Russian strategic bombers patrol the Beaufort Sea, and Norad jet fighters are scrambled on cue. U.S. reconnaissance aircraft patrol the Baltic Sea and Baltic States in range of Russian borders, jumping from 22 such flights in 2013 to 141 in 2014, according to Russian air force officials. NATO flights near the border of Belarus and near Russia's Kaliningrad region are said to have doubled over the past year, exceeding 3,000 in 2014.
In the 1990s a U.S. Naval War College paper hyped air power as "the new gunboat diplomacy," arguing ...
[EDITORIAL COMMENT:- Contains an interesting interpretation of President Roosevelt (T)'s "Speak softly and ..." line. Unfortunately it's at the end of the article.]
http://www.therecord.com/opinion-story/5251009-air-power-becoming-the-new-gunboat-diplomacy/
Air power becoming the new gunboat diplomacy
Fighter aircraft probing air defences, expanded surveillance and reconnaissance missions, extended long-range nuclear bomber patrols — they are all part of the new lingua franca of East-West diplomacy.
"East-West relations" is itself once more a term of art in global affairs as Moscow, Washington and Brussels take up their quarrels and rely increasingly on military gestures to do the talking for them. The ostensible point is to communicate strength and resolve, but there is an unavoidable subtext of impotence in posing threats you know you can't ever carry out.
Military symbolism is now literally in full flight. In the dominant western narrative, Russian flights are provocative and dangerous; in the East it's the reverse, with NATO the provocateur. From Europe to the Arctic to North America, over land and sea, air power diplomacy has taken centre stage.
Russian fighters buzz Canadian frigates in the Black Sea and pose dangers to civilian air traffic over the Baltic Sea. Russian strategic bombers patrol the Beaufort Sea, and Norad jet fighters are scrambled on cue. U.S. reconnaissance aircraft patrol the Baltic Sea and Baltic States in range of Russian borders, jumping from 22 such flights in 2013 to 141 in 2014, according to Russian air force officials. NATO flights near the border of Belarus and near Russia's Kaliningrad region are said to have doubled over the past year, exceeding 3,000 in 2014.
In the 1990s a U.S. Naval War College paper hyped air power as "the new gunboat diplomacy," arguing ...
[EDITORIAL COMMENT:- Contains an interesting interpretation of President Roosevelt (T)'s "Speak softly and ..." line. Unfortunately it's at the end of the article.]
Posted in these groups: 
Foreign Affairs
Close Air Support (CAS)
Foreign Affairs Close Air Support (CAS)
Posted 10 y ago
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