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Will Yale

@wayale.bsky.social
3.5K followers 704 following 714 posts

Surface Warfare Officer (U.S. Navy) in DC. Six years in Japan, two years in China. Episcopalian. Johns Hopkins SAIS/HNC alum. 中文/日本語 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦🇹🇼

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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 31m
Potent words from Admiral McRaven: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...
theatlantic.com
Admiral McRaven: Public Execution Is Shameless and Ignoble
A government livestream of Nidal Hasan’s killing would put America in extremely poor company.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Excited to join @milwritersguild.bsky.social as a member! Looking forward to engaging with this unique community of writers and readers as I expand my published output.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
All things considered, for 1668 these aren’t *that* bad.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Superb article on a criminally under-appreciated aspect of the naval tradition. www.usni.org/magazines/pr...
usni.org
Visualizing the Next Maritime Strategy
The most effective naval strategists think globally and geographically, using maps to express maritime strategy.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Insightful article from Jonathan Czin: www.foreignaffairs.com/taiwan/comin...
foreignaffairs.com
The Coming Taiwan Crisis
Use today’s calm to prepare for the next perfect storm.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
No surprise, one of the most clear-eyed takes on the Trump-Xi summit comes from Kurt Campbell: www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/new...
www3.nhk.or.jp
Expert warns about China's wedge strategy | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News
Former US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has warned about Beijing's intentions, saying it is trying to undermine ties between Washington and Tokyo.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It can't possibly be a coincidence that North Korea's destroyer Choe Hyon has the same hull number as the USS Arleigh Burke. www.usni.org/magazines/pr...
usni.org
North Korea’s Choe Hyon–Class Naval Strike Destroyer
On 23 June 2026, North Korea commissioned the Choe Hyon, the first of four heavily armed destroyers introducing powerful new naval strike capabilities to their fleet.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
If you have worked on Navy force structure, shipbuilding, and/or ship repair (or even only have some hot takes), especially regarding amphibious warfare ships, I want to hear from you! The more prisms through which I can view this problem set, the better.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Excited to announce that I have been selected to serve as a detailee to the National Commission on the Future of the Navy! I’m looking forward to supporting the commission and contributing both my experience at HQMC and my expertise in Navy force structure and shipbuilding to their work.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Strongly agree with this piece by @rushdoshi.bsky.social and Rosie Levine. For me, language study in China (supported by Gilman and Fulbright-Hays funding) and graduate education at Hopkins-Nanjing was transformative. What happens when those opportunities are gone? www.cfr.org/articles/ame...
cfr.org
America Is Losing the Ability to Train Tomorrow’s China Experts. The Trump-Xi Summit Can Help. | Council on Foreign Relations
Long-standing educational programs such as Fulbright, Boren, and the Critical Language Scholarship are all suspended. A leader-level deal could bring them back and protect the students who take part.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Happy to be quoted in this @breakingdefense.com piece by Michael Marrow on the closure of CASI. breakingdefense.com/2026/09/the-...
breakingdefense.com
The Air Force says its China think-tank will continue. Its director says it's basically dead. - Breaking Defense
The Air Force’s stance that the China Aerospace Studies Institute can function without civilian staff is “not credible,” Brendan Mulvaney told Breaking Defense.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This extraordinary WSJ article details the many ways China has enabled Iran during Operation Epic Fury. China may say it wants to play peacemaker in the Middle East, yet it indirectly participates in the war. I hope the U.S. imposes real consequences for this behavior. www.wsj.com/politics/chi...
wsj.com
Iran Has a Secret Weapon in Its War With America: Help From China
Trump wants to preserve relations with Xi, but Iranian customs data show Chinese entities have made thousands of shipments of components used in drones and missiles.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This story highlights two facts about the U.S. military supply system: 1) that it frequently utilizes commercial carriers to move parts; and 2) that the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) and Lockheed Martin maintain centralized control over all F-35 parts. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
China Is Holding Sensitive F-35 Parts Diverted to Hong Kong
The Chinese government has taken possession of potentially sensitive F-35 stealth aircraft parts that were inexplicably diverted to Hong Kong while being sent to the US from Australia, people briefed ...
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Make it make sense!
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Gerald C Brown @geraldcbrown.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I'm glad to see the extent of outrage caused by Air University's short-sighted decision to shut down CASI. The analyst's at CASI aren't just close friends of mine, they're a series of top notch China hands doing a massive service to the USG that is rarely replicated.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
That works too!
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Brendan O’Kane @bokane.org · 21/09/2026
jesus
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Dr Emma Salisbury @salisbot.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
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Nick Kodama 🌳👻 @nickkodama.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
pikachu looking at dead ash but it's pacom looking at the pivot
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Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
what the fuck
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David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Literal decades of damage to United States national security. There are kids now who would have gone to do ROTC or joined the IC. They won't be there in thirty years as senior officers or analysts. Think about what leadership looks like then if only populated by those who joined now...
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Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Between the killing of DTIC and now CASI, DOD really trying to kill any and all scholarship on war, I’m sure that’ll work out smartly!
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David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
my god someone make it stop
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Only CASI has been shuttered, so far.
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B. A. Friedman @bafriedman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This is awful. CASI does excellent work and put on the best PLA course in DC.
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David Burbach 🇺🇸 @dburbach.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This is a big mistake. I find CASI materials invaluable in teaching military officers at NWC about China's military space programs and strategy.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
property). CASI was one of the most prominent institutions in the field which made its research and expertise freely available, and I hope it is revived under more enlightened leadership.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
national security challenge facing the United States. One of the enduring challenges in PLA studies as a field is that most institutions have an incentive to jealously guard their research and expertise (either because it involves classified information or because it is considered intellectual…
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
hosts a biennial conference. CASI has measurably increased knowledge about the PLA within the U.S. government, academia, think tanks, and the broader public--which should be in the U.S. government's interest, given that strategic competition with the PRC is the most important and consequential…
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
China Warfighting Initiative, are the most prolific producers of publicly-accessible open source research about the PLA in the United States. CASI has published hundreds of studies and translations over the years, regularly sponsors educational courses about the PLA, and…
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
It is extremely unfortunate and regrettable that the Department of the Air Force has decided to shutter the China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI). CASI, along with its sister institutions the China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI), China Landpower Studies Center (CLSC), and…
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I have heard Col Niedziocha deliver this brief twice, and what the 31st MEU was able to achieve during Operation Epic Fury is truly impressive.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is an important article which explains how the USMC is operationalizing Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO). These are exactly the same capabilities the Stand-in Force (SIF) would use in the First Island Chain during a Taiwan contingency. www.twz.com/sea/usmc-use...
twz.com
USMC Used Its Expeditionary Operations Playbook In Combat For First Time During Epic Fury
The USMC set up remote forward refueling and rearming points for F-35Bs and other aircraft, as well as sensing locations during the war with Iran.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Here, here! Excellent article from @briankerg.bsky.social. www.usni.org/magazines/pr...
usni.org
Where Exactly Has the Warrior Ethos Gotten Us?
The Marine Corps should revive its traditional ethos, emphasizing professional competence, readiness, honor, courage, and commitment for the demands of modern warfare.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Excellent argument--the Navy is an essential tool of statecraft in both wartime *and* peacetime. www.usni.org/magazines/pr...
usni.org
More Than a Warfighter
History proves readiness alone is not enough for war.
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Yen-han Chen 陳彥翰 🇹🇼🇺🇸🇺🇦 @chen-yenhan.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
If you don’t have amnesia, you’ll remember that Biden, a president responsible for AUKUS, the US-Japan-Korea trilateral, increased FMF for Taiwan, and extensively using the Entity List against Chinese firms, was portrayed as too soft on China.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Set aside the controversy around this segment. This is absolutely a story the USG should publicize. What other military could possibly pull this off? www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...
youtube.com
U.S. Air Force officer shot down in Iran says it's a "modern-day miracle" he survived | 60 Minutes
YouTube video by 60 Minutes
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
sings The Battle Hymn of the Republic in solidarity with the United States. As an American, I am grateful that we have friends in the world even in our darkest hour who share that "noble community of values" upon which the U.S. was founded.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Every September 11th, I like to watch this clip of the memorial service held a few days after 9/11 at St Paul's Cathedral, London, in which the Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey delivers the end of his sermon and the mostly British congregation... www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmpo...
youtube.com
Battle Hymn of the Republic - London 2001
YouTube video by julius923
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Brian Hioe @brianhioe.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Here's me on that Simon Shuster piece in The Atlantic. The reason why I think it struck a nerve is his sympathies are quite transparent. He spends two paragraphs at the start fawning over the grandeur of CCP state ceremonies
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Brian Kerg @briankerg.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
OMG she nailed the author for referring to the KMT as the 'Taiwanese Nationalists' ☠️
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Friends in Washington, DC: on Friday, September 25th, I will be moderating a @ycaps.bsky.social book talk by Dr. Geoffrey F. Gresh, author of Leaning Seaward: Japan as a Maritime Great Power. I hope you can make it! Please find more information and register here: www.ycaps.org/dc-leaning-s...
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This article is a gift to CCP propaganda. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
theatlantic.com
Will Taiwan Just Give Up?
The Taiwanese don’t trust Trump, and they don’t believe America will come to their defense. A deal with China is starting to look inevitable.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Wow, a great score for my alma mater @johnshopkinssais.bsky.social!
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
The U.S. is making decisions that will damage the navy's readiness for years. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Trump’s war on Iran is rapidly draining US navy budget, documents and interviews reveal
Exclusive: Experts and former officials say accounts are running dry, and funding a war with no clear endgame is the main challenge
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
“Both Watson and Scheller used their positions in the military to criticize their political leadership, failing in their duty as military officers to refrain from either endorsement or criticism of the decisions made by the civilians who lead the country.” thedispatch.com/article/wats...
thedispatch.com
The Military and Politics Don’t Mix
Service members shouldn’t be criticizing—or fawning over—politicians and military leaders.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Also an example of how the U.S. is working with our Australian allies to enhance deterrence in the Western Pacific.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Another example of the Littoral Maneuver Bridging Strategy (LMBS) in action: the first Ancillary Surface Craft (ASC), sponsored by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL), has completed technical acceptance. www.workboat.com/landing-craf...
workboat.com
Landing craft prototype delivered to the Marine Corps
The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) has completed technical acceptance of the first Ancillary Surface Craft prototype, a roll-on/roll-off landing craft built through a partnership between B
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The Marine Corps continues to make steady progress towards Stand-in Forces (SIF) capable of littoral maneuver within the First Island Chain.
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