Articles Due: April 15, 2024
Topic Week Dates: April 29-May 3, 2024
Article Length: 1,5000-3,000 Words
Submit to: [email protected]

By Dmitry Filipoff

The Red Sea has become a scene of major action as an international coalition protects shipping from Houthi attacks. Warships have shot down dozens of missiles and drones in a bid to secure vital sea lanes, but commercial ships continue to take hits. The attacks have managed to heavily influence the operations and decision-making of major shipping companies, prompting global economic consequences. The coalition has gone on the offensive and struck Houthi targets with an aim toward degrading their capability to continue the strike campaign, but the threat persists. 

The combat operations in the Red Sea offer a variety of lessons and insights. From the tactical management of air defense capability, to the strategic employment of navies in defense of global commons, the Red Sea has become an exemplary case of the challenges of war at sea and the importance of naval power. 

What can we learn from the operations in the Red Sea? How may navies process this experience to improve their warfighting skill and their strategic employment? How may naval power be brought to bear against the Houthi threat to decisively conclude this operation and restore stability? Authors are invited to address these questions and more as we examine the significance of this uniquely maritime crisis. Send all submissions to [email protected].

Dmitry Filipoff is CIMSEC’s Director of Online Content. Contact him at [email protected].

Featured Image: The Red Sea as seen from space. (NASA photo)

Stories Due: November 20, 2023
Week Dates: December 4–8, 2023
Story Length: 1,5000-3,000 Words
Submit to: [email protected]

By Dmitry Filipoff

Fiction has long served as a powerful means for exploring hypotheticals and envisioning alternatives. In annual tradition, CIMSEC will be running a series of short stories looking to explore the nature of conflict and competition through fiction. 

Authors can explore the future and flesh out concepts for how potential clashes and warfighting challenges may play out. They can probe the past, and use historical fiction to explore alternative histories. Authors are invited to craft gripping narratives that illuminate the unforeseen and etch realistic detail into today’s visions of future conflict.

Send all submissions to [email protected].

Dmitry Filipoff is CIMSEC’s Director of Online Content. Contact him at [email protected].

Featured Image: Futuristic warship art generated by Midjourney AI. 

Submissions Due: October 25, 2023
Topic Week Dates: November 13-17, 2023
Article Length: 1,500-3,000 words
Submit To: [email protected]

By Col. Todd Lyons, USMC (Ret.)

The 2022 U.S. National Defense Strategy calls for competing “across all domains and the spectrum of conflict” to gain military advantage, enhance deterrence, and address gray zone challenges. The strategy encourages an integrated approach across government organizations, activities, domains, and with allies. It also calls for U.S. competitive efforts to be structured into campaigns, with the strategy defining campaigning as “the conduct and sequencing of logically linked military initiatives aimed at advancing well-defined, strategy-aligned priorities over time.” Campaigns take the form of long-term and thoughtfully planned endeavors, as opposed to more diffuse and short-term efforts. They can enable successful competition in peacetime and set conditions for victory in wartime.

What does integrated campaigning mean for naval forces?  A starting point proposed by some at the Naval Postgraduate School is that, “An integrated naval campaign is a series of operations in, and from, the maritime domain conducted by joint, interorganizational, and allied forces to achieve national strategic and operational objectives.” What forms can an integrated naval campaign take, and how might it enhance or benefit from all elements of national power? What emerging capabilities might enhance naval integration with partners and allies? How may unmanned force structure transform naval campaigning? Concepts for naval campaigning could define how naval forces evolve and operate for years to come.

The U.S. Naval Postgraduate School’s Naval Warfare Studies Institute (NWSI) is exploring these questions through its FY22-23 Warfare Innovation Continuum, themed “Integrated Naval Campaigning.” NWSI is exploring these questions through workshops, course projects, wargaming, and research initiatives. The NPS Foundation is honored to support the Naval Postgraduate School and is partnering with CIMSEC to solicit articles on integrated naval campaigning.

Some questions to explore include:

• How might emerging technologies and concepts enhance naval campaigning?
• What force design best supports an integrated naval campaign?
• How do the concepts of Marine Corps stand-in forces and the U.S. Navy’s Distributed Maritime Operations support integrated naval campaigning?
• How might the U.S. partner with regional organizations or countries to support an integrated naval campaign?
• How might gray zone activities set the conditions for, or obstruct preparations for integrated naval campaigning?
• What warfighting domains, U.S. organizations, or allies are critical for the success of an integrated naval campaign?
• How might lessons from past integrated naval campaigning inform 21^stcentury campaigns?

Authors are encouraged to consider these questions and more as the need for integrated naval campaigning becomes clearer and more urgent. Send all submissions to [email protected].

Colonel Todd Lyons retired from the Marine Corps after 30 years of service. He currently serves as the Vice President for the Naval Postgraduate School Foundation and Alumni Association. In this role, he assists in connecting industry, academia, alumni, and DoD entities to accelerate the responsiveness of NPS to the challenges arising from strategic competition and emerging technology. He also serves as a volunteer instructor for Innovation Leadership at NPS.

Featured Image: April 9, 2021 – The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group transits in formation with the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group in the South China Sea. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Terence Deleon Guerrero)

By Dmitry Filipoff

Submissions Due: September 18, 2023
Week Dates: September 25-30, 2023
Submission Length: 500 words
Submit to: [email protected]

In 500 words or less, what do you want the new Chief of Naval Operations to know? CIMSEC is launching a special topic week series featuring short articles that look to convey pressing points to the U.S. Navy’s new top leadership.

On August 14, 2023, Admiral Lisa Franchetti assumed the duties of Acting Chief of Naval Operations. Several days later, Admiral Franchetti issued guidance to the fleet, and captured the scope and intent of the Navy’s major efforts:

“In our ongoing effort to strengthen warfighters, improve warfighting, and ready the platforms that support them, our way ahead is clear and our course is true. We will continue our Navy-wide culture renovation, where Get Real Get Better is the standard of leadership and problem-solving that leaders at all levels embrace and live. We are building teams that are self-assessing, self-correcting, and always learning toward one goal – delivering warfighting advantage. Similarly, we have commenced a once-in-a-generation transformation of our Navy in order to develop, design, and deploy the weapons and tools we need to compete and win, both now and in the future. In this decisive decade, we will maintain this course and increase our speed.”

How can Admiral Franchetti better lead these efforts and achieve these objectives? What challenges are underappreciated by Navy leadership and deserve stronger priority? Contributors can address these questions and many more as they convey their message to the Navy’s new leadership.

Given the broadly international nature of the U.S. Navy’s mandate and the numerous partners and allies that closely work with American naval forces, international contributors are highly encouraged to share their perspectives. 

Please submit all contributions for consideration to [email protected]. 

This is an independent CIMSEC initiative and is not produced in cooperation with any U.S. Navy organization or entity. Read the previous edition of “Notes to the New CNO” here.

Dmitry Filipoff is CIMSEC’s Director of Online Content. Contact him at [email protected]. 

Featured Image: The new acting Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Lisa Franchetti delivers remarks after assuming the duties of CNO during the relinquishment of office ceremony for the 32nd Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Michael M. Gilday at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, August 14, 2023. (DoD photo by Chad J. McNeeley)