Much of my 2025 will be devoted to co-authoring a book with my great English friend David Richards. The title is The Great Paradox: Strategic Thinking in an Unstrategic World. David’s more formal title is General The Lord Richards of Herstmonceux, a peerage conferred for his long and distinguished service culminating as Chief of the UK Defense Staff, equivalent to the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

David and I first met more than twenty years ago in Kabul where he was commanding NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) for Afghanistan. His views on dealing with the Taliban based on reconciliation at the tribal level were in some conflict with NATO and US doctrine. Sadly, David would be proven correct.

One of the reasons for this book was the dramatic failings and failures of government, both democratic and autocratic. Whether one loved or hated Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump, some 80 percent of Americans believed the US was headed in the wrong direction. A similarly large proportion had lost trust and confidence in government and most institutions even in the private sector. And America’s $36 trillion debt is nearly 1 1/2 times GDP – an economically unsustainable level.

The........

© Daily Times