About

I am a political economist studying innovation, industry, and international security. Since September 2001, I have been advising industries and ministries on their issues of strategy, planning, and policy. My work aims to inform investors, industrialists, technologists, and policy-makers on how to effect, economically, a secure future.

Recent Articles

« Does skill, technology, or learning matter most in warfare? Recent battlefield evidence argues that industry should rethink old weapons, invest in simulations, and emphasize corporate agility. | Main | On Learning Lessons from the Russo-Ukrainian War: Moving militaries into the 21st Century may require alliances for marketing and manufacturing. »

14 August 2023

On Landmines: Consider criminalizing the mining of another country’s territory, and a prize competition for a truly automated approach for detection and destruction.

As the Ukrainian defense minister recently lamented, “Ukraine is the most heavily mined country in the world.” While his not-quite 6,000 sappers are hard at work scratching paths through Russian lines, actually clearing the country of explosives could take twenty years at its present pace. Few systematic solutions have emerged “left-of-boom,” beyond hand-held metal detectors and Bangalore torpedos, developed during the First World War. My research describes how matching better solutions to the problem requires providing policymakers with windows of opportunity for making the right decisions, which open lamentably infrequently. I offer two other ideas for advancing the cause against landmines: criminalizing the mining of another country’s territory, and a prize competition for a truly automated approach for detection and destruction.

My five-page analysis and policy proposal is available here: Download On Landmines 20230814.

Posted at 13:06 in Land |

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

The comments to this entry are closed.

Accolades

  • Read only the first few pages. The clarity and eloquence of them is highly unusual. Extremely un-boring. Everything that one does not need to know seems to have been removed before publication.
    — Attorney, politician, academic, and strategist
  • I'm continually amazed and impressed with what appears to me to be some magical ability you have to synthesize a tremendous sweep of ideas and sources and to cogently streamline into a tight and, most importantly, readable essay.
    — Test engineer, Naval Air Systems Command
  • One of the most insightful analysts on issues of defense economics...
    — Senior defense industry equities analyst
  • I need a Jim.
    — DC think tank director
  • Simply outstanding.
    — Deputy Under Secretary at the Pentagon, on recent analyses of future force structure requirements
  • You and Aboulafia are the only two publicly-quoted defense consultants worth paying attention to.
    — Public policy advocate
  • You’re one of the few guys who brings me real numbers. Most people just try to blow smoke...
    — President of a major military trucks and armored vehicles manufacturer
  • You are an impressive madman whom I am glad to know.
    — Vice President and M&A practice leader with an aerospace & defense consultancy
  • One of the best strategic moves we could have made, short of starting another war.
    — General Manager, leading weapons manufacturer, regarding recommendations for using the lessons of the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq to plan the future of the company’s product lines
  • Exactly what we needed.
    — CEO of a defense buy-out firm, on market insights and financial projections regarding an acquisition target
  • Your ability to infer from open sources is wonderful.
    — Vice President for Corporate Strategy, leading armored vehicles manufacturer, on recent studies of fatality patterns in military vehicles in Afghanistan and Iraq
  • We should have done [this] a year ago, but I could never find someone like you with the right perspective.
    — Vice President for Business Development at a fast-growing manufacturing firm, on recommendations for managing the company’s problematic alliance with a Fortune 500 defense contractor

Recent Posts