Robert Kaplan: How we would fight China

More than two weeks ago, Tomorrow.sg mentioned the Atlantic Monthly article summarised at www.cominganarchy.com. Unfortunately, the full article was not available. So, I emailed EagleSpeak (as I also wanted to hear his opinion) who eventually located a link (thank you). So, enjoy.

Loosely related afterthought: We were talking about blogs vs. MSM and one point, the notion of real-life experts blogging was mentioned. So here's a chance for me to go on a limb and plug for just three of my favorites:

- When I want detailed analysis on the military situation in Iraq, I turn to The Adventures of Chester, authored by an USMC officer (ret) who was at one point on the ground in Iraq, and whose detailed blow-by-blow commentary on the Battle of Fallajuh was the initial cause of the blog's fame.

- For tracking the maritime security situation in the region, I tend to turn to EagleSpeak, authored by an USNR attorney (ret) who saw service in Vietnam, Desert Storm and the Balkans.

- For US Election Politics, my absolute favorite was The Horse Race Blog, authored by a political science graduate student who knows a lot about polls and statistics. With the help of volunteers, his blog crunched (historical and new) data from the polls all through the later part of the 2004 campaign making many predictions that were confirmed. Jay Cost has since transferred operations to The Red State.

In my opinion, some of the very best that the blogosphere has to offer. It's very hard to find comparable levels of insight (in the specific areas) in the MSM.