Don't Panic: Life After Highlander

I had a bit of a freak-out the other day. Now, most people who know me know that me "freaking out" involves about as much dysfunction and stress as most people experience while on vacation, but it's still upsetting. So, what's going on? It's really quite simple: I'm nervous about post-graduation employment.

Should I be nervous? Probably not. For one thing, it's early, and I only just started looking for work about a month ago. My buddy David the Recruiter informs me that August is the low point for recruiting, and that he expects that I'll have something lined up no later than December. That's great encouragement. I've also identified a number of different companies outside my own to apply with (just to cover my bases - you can never be too careful), and I've got a couple of "safety" options as well. It's unlikely that I won't be able to find something to do, and proceed accordingly.

So, why am I so nervous?

I was thinking about this on the bus a couple of days ago, and I realized that for the first time since late 2010 - going on three whole years - my trajectory for the immediate future is in question. I have spreadsheets and budgets and timelines for Operation Highlander that date back to Spring of 2010, and those were derived from other spreadsheets for other projects that date back even further than that. For me to have reached the point at which Highlander is almost over, and not have a solid idea of where I'll be going or what I'll be doing when it's done, is a major departure for me, so it's really no wonder I'm getting nervous. And I'm in a tough position because time that I'd otherwise be using to develop several different contingency plans is instead being used to write my dissertation. In that sense, it reminds me to something I read recently:

Preceding military commanders and civilian officials had sought to facilitate transition by assigning greater responsibility to Afghans. The Marines concluded that the enemy was too strong and the Afghan government too weak to permit a successful transition under these conditions. Instead, they decided to take the lead in security operations in order to set the conditions for ultimate success. By reducing violence and permitting government officials freedom of movement, they put the government on a viable path to sustainable transition. This shift in approach mirrored the shift in Iraq in 2006 and 2007, when initial efforts to transition responsibility to Iraqis failed so spectacularly that the Americans chose to retake the lead in security until the situation stabilized. In both instances, a de-emphasis on transition actually improved the prospects for transition and shortened the amount of time required for a successful handover.

While I'm certainly not comparing myself to the Marines' campaign against the Taliban, the point I'm getting at is that the best thing I can do at this point is to work hard on my dissertation in order to finish the program out strong, which should hopefully facilitate my subsequent push to find gainful employment. I may take a few hours over the course of several days in order to start some serious planning, but as we're now a third of the way through August, I really need to keep putting some serious work into finishing and refining my dissertation so that it's graded well and gets me the First that I've been gunning for all along.

Years and years of working alongside the military have made me fond of a number of mantras, among these being "the only easy day was yesterday", "it pays to be a winner", and "challenge, endure, conquer". A lot of people probably think these are just slogans or catch-phrases, but they've become a cornerstone of my personal philosophy. In addition to "don't panic" and "keep calm and carry on", one of my own personal mottos has become "keep fighting" - in fact, during my Unst geocaching adventure, the difference between giving up and charging forward was telling myself to "keep fighting". When you think about it, this is just another one of those situations. So, my duties are clear: 1) slaughter my dissertation, 2) plan for the short term, 3) plan contingencies for the long term. Bam. Nailed it.

Don't Panic: Semester Transition Point

Hi, folks. I haven't posted very much lately. March has been crazy busy, and it all sort of culminated in this week.

On Wednesday, CN Slapshot and I presented on Persian Gulf security for GSI. I handled the GCC/PSF, while CN Slapshot addressed Iraq's role as an oil producer and provided a comprehensive review of the lengthy history of the Iranian nuclear program. We encountered a few challenges, and had very different ideas of what information to present, and that lack of coordination cost us a couple of points; but, we still did pretty well. I'm taking it as motivation to work that much harder studying for the exam in a few weeks.

The other big item for this week has been the 4-5,000 word essay for SND. I had hoped to write on the potential for Saudi Arabia to acquire nuclear weapons should Iran become a nuclear weapon state; but, after consulting with Critical Mass, I elected to go with one of the following topic: "Assess the value of tactical nuclear weapons in NATO’s deterrent strategy since the end of the Cold War." After several days of hard writing and a couple more days of hard editing to get it under the maximum word count, I submitted my essay twenty-four hours early, with 147 citations (compared to the 25 for my Strategic Intelligence essay from last semester), and just over one hundred words under the word count ceiling - a great accomplishment, given that I didn't cut any actual content and was still somehow able to cut it from the original finished length of 6300+ words. I'll probably post it, maybe in pieces, over the next few weeks.

So, where does that leave me? Simple: Easter Break. For those of you who are uninitiated with the Scottish system, they take three weeks off for Easter, as opposed to the single week that we take off for Spring Break in the States - well, that I always got off. I think some places in the States take two weeks, and which week(s) varies from place to place. Anyway, during the next three weeks, I hope to travel a bit, first up to Shetland, and we'll see where else I find myself wandering off to. I'll also need to spend some of that time studying for exams, since we apparently don't get the same block of time between the end of classes and the beginning of exam week that we did at the end of the last semester. I'll probably wind up spending some serious quality time with my buddies Lawrence Freedman, Colin Gray, Albert Wohlstetter, Bernard Brodie, and Laurence Martin. I'm not quite as sure how I'll study for GSI, but I'm also more confident in my knowledge of global security issues than I am with my understanding of strategic nuclear doctrine.

I wanted to come to Aberdeen for a lot of different reasons, though I'll admit that location was probably higher on the list than the actual program - not that the program was low on the list, because it was still pretty high. Anyway, strategy has interested me for a long time. It's long been said that America teaches its officers tactics, not strategy - that's to say, we teach our officers how to win battles, but not how to win wars. One of the things I've been learning about this semester is what the Director calls "operational strategy", which is a sort of middle point between the art of stitching a lot of battles together to get a specific effect, and the art of stitching those effects together to get a specific end state. I've spent some time studying how America in particular has tried to fine tune its "operational strategy" over the last twenty years, and what that has meant for the way America, its allies, and its enemies have conducted warfare. I've found it particularly fascinating not only because it's relevant to the course material, but also because it's influenced my professional life in a big way.

Anyway, now that I'm not worried about editing memoranda about the Gulf down to a particular word count, or writing about NATO's doctrine concerning tactical nuclear weapons, I hope to blog a bit more. And if I can put a few day or overnight trips under my belt, I shoul dhave some interesting stuff to blog about, too. So, for those of you who are still reading since last Summer, or whom are new, thanks for sticking with me.

Don't Panic: Exam Review Strategy

I've been reviewing for my upcoming exams. I have my Strategic Theory exam on Monday, 14th January, and I have my Strategic Intelligence exam on Wednesday, 16th January. The drawback is that I have to study for both up front, because a day and a half isn't enough of a gap to justify putting one off. The flipside is that my colleagues and I will have about two weeks between the end of exams, and the beginning of the second semester.

I've made a bit of progress during the time I've been in Aberdeen. As I mentioned back in September, none of the textbooks I read prior to arrival were the actual textbooks that would be assigned for the first semester. That'll help me next semester, as I've already read most of the books that I'll be assigned, but it means picking up the pace in the next couple of weeks. So, where am I at this point?

For Strategic Theory, I was "assigned" Strategy in the Contemporary World, Modern Strategy, and Modern Military Strategy: An Introduction, with the acknowledgement from The Director that reading all of these and the various articles in the syllabus ("course guide") is impossible. The Director also keeps PDF files of "clippings" - articles that he's clipped from newspapers and magazines over the years and scanned. There's also the matter of reviewing the slide decks that The Director and my fellow Strategists have presented on the various topics we've discussed. At this point, I've finished Modern Military Strategy: An Introduction, though I plan to do a bit of review of some of the key sections. The next book on the docket is Modern Strategy, and I hope to finish it next week. I think Strategy in the Contemporary World will have to be saved as a reference for next semester - triage, if you will.

As for Strategic Intelligence, the recommended textbooks are Secret Intelligence: A Reader , Intelligence Power in Peace and War , Intelligence in an Insecure World , and Intelligence in War. I finished Intelligence Power in Peace and War - one of the densest books I've ever read in my life - on Friday. At some point prior to the exam, I'll go back through it and type up the end-of-chapter summaries to study from. As I just mentioned, my next reading choice is Modern Strategy. Assuming I finish that up, my next read will be Intelligence in an Insecure World. I'll also need to review the slide decks from the various presentations by E and the other Strategists. That means that Secret Intelligence: A Reader and Intelligence in War will probably be sacrificed as well.

It's a lot - a lot of work to do, and a limited time to do it, but exams and regurgitation of minutiae into a booklet have always been some of my greatest academic strengths. It's time for a strong push in these last couple of weeks to make sure I'm prepared to demolish whatever The Director and E decide to put in front of me on the 14th and 16th, respectively. After that, it's time for some well deserved rest and relaxation.

Don't Panic: Late Semester Update

I'll be honest, before I came to Aberdeen, I was nervous about graduate school. For example, postgraduate programs in the States require applicants to take the GRE or other entrance examinations. I never took nor studied for anything of the sort, so even though I thought I'd be able to do alright, I was still concerned that I might not be able to perform to the level necessary to succeed.

I mentioned some of my solid work previously. As of Wednesday, here's the tally of how I've done so far.

Strategic Intelligence Tutorial Presentation: Non-graded, but I was told by both E and some of my classmates that I did well. My topic was Intelligence Agencies of the World.

Strategic Theory "In-Class Essay" (Mid-Term Exam): I tied for the highest score in the class with an 18/20. My essay discussed changes in the conduct of war between 1815 (the end of the Napoleonic Wars) and 1914 (the beginning of World War I.

Strategic Intelligence Essay: I turned mine in a week early, and received a mark of 18/20. E was particularly pleased that I had used examples from John John Le Carré's The Looking Glass War and the 1992 Tom Clancy film Patriot Games to illustrate some of my points.

Strategic Theory Team Presentation: CN Odin and I finished our slide deck and memorandum for this requirement a full five days early, and we were both quite pleased with both. We presented Wednesday, and scored 19/20 - the highest score in the class. We discussed requirements for success in modern counterinsurgency campaigns, and used the Algerian War and the Dhofar Rebellion as contrasting examples. The Director recommended that we turn it into a formal paper and submit it to the Small Wars Journal.

So, that leaves final exams in January. I would have liked to have gotten more reading done during the rest of the semester, but I'll try to get another couple of books completed in the next few weeks. As it turns out, I've performed very well this first semester, which will hopefully be an indicator of my performance over the course of the entire year.

Don't Panic: The UKBA's Eventual Win

I got an E-mail this morning informing me that my visa has been issued, and that my passport will arrive via UPS early next week. As I mentioned previously, I'm not going to re-book my ticket to Aberdeen until I'm physically holding the passport, but this is pretty good news because it means that I'll be able to get to Aberdeen late, but in time for the first day of courses in about a week and a half.

I've stalled on packing, which means that I need to spend the next three days packing both my bags and my apartment. I've picked up four more Action Packers - two medium, two small - because I was worried about running out of room when packing up my apartment. Hopefully, I have enough now; if not, I can still run out and get a few more.

At this point, given the delay, I think Gus is going to come a few weeks into the term. I'll likely take my two carry-on bags, my Arc'Teryx Echo Pack, and one seabag, with Gus following with a second seabag to carry stuff that I won't need immediately upon arrival. I'll probably spend the first part of tomorrow packing those bags, which should make it a bit easier to finish packing up my apartment.

As much as I would have loved to have been in Scotland by now, I think I'll wind up being thankful for the additional time to get things sorted out back here in the States. And now, for more stalling.

Don't Panic: The UKBA's Epic Fail

I've enjoyed, and plan to keep, the Keep Calm and Carry On category here on the Operation Highlander blog. I'm now introducing its flamboyant doppelgänger: Don't Panic. KCCO will be posted when I'm under quite a bit of stress, and DP will be posted when I've found reason to relax.

My passport won't get back in time to leave this week, and there's nothing I can do about that. I've arranged with the airline to cancel the tickets Gus and I had booked on this week's flight, and I'll re-book once I have the passport back in my hands. Assuming we haven't reached the deadline whereby Gus is unable to join me, I'm only out $500 for the cancellation and re-booking. If we reach the point in which Gus can't join me at all, we'll alter the plan accordingly.

The whole situation is beyond my control, so why panic at this point? As I've stated before, the worst option means I still get to go spend a year in Scotland.