West 2012: America's Military at the Crossroads Confrence

West 2012, Jan 24-26, 2012

January always brings an important naval centric event that all those interested in the status of the US Navy and it's future strategy and how that affects our security and global presence should try and attend. Next week, Jan 24-26, 2012 will see West 2012: “America’s Military at the Crossroads: What’s Out and What’s In for 2012 and Beyond?” taking place at the San Diego Convention Center. Registration is free, and the morning and afternoon addresses are open to all attendees. Now one might think that this is something that would only appeal to purveyors of defense and security hardware, but it is also important to academics, public safety, law enforcement, and all those interested in the role that our Navy and Marine Corps will play as we turn from the land wars in Southwest Asia, and focus on the traditional role the Navy has played in our security, and global presence since the nation's founding.

This conference is perhaps even more important this year in the light of President Obama's recent "Strategic Pivot" towards East Asia. China itself, in their effort to invent a blue water navy is inviting scrutiny. This leads to a natural concern that even our current long time allies once had towards our launching a blue water navy. One hopes as stated in this Thomas Barnett piece that cooler heads prevail.  I will have more in the coming weeks, after spending a couple of days attending and hanging out with fellow bloggers and friends.