Studies

Bullets and Blogs: New Media and the Warfighter Diedre Collings, Rafal Rohozinski Study by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "War is nothing if not a constant process of adaptation. Today, anyone armed with a digital camera and access to the Internet can become an information warrior, potentially reaching global audiences. Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and blogs have become as important to the strategic outcome of military operations as bullets, troops and air power. Appreciating the game-changing properties of new media are as important for today’s warfighters as are the skills, training and tradecraft required to maneuver conventional forces. "

The New Chemistry of C2 Mr Kevin J Cogan, Mister William O Waddell Study by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "A necessary change in the military transition to the next generation of warfare is the maturing of “command and control” processes and semantics for leading and configuring the organization to meet emerging threats. In the book Understanding Command and Control, Drs. Alberts and Hayes state that the purpose of C2 “has remained unchanged since the earliest military forces engaged.” In a journal article, Dr. Alberts writes that agility, focus, and convergence might be the semantics that replace the linguistics of the term Command and Control. He suggests that Command and Control are terms that no longer fit the transformation in warfare paradigm for the 21st century. He calls for new approaches to thinking about C2 by removing the “restrictive legacy of language and connotation” and by so doing he proposes replacing C2 with the terms Focus & Convergence, where “agility is the critical capability that organizations need to meet the challenges of complexity and uncertainty.” This is particularly true when it is likely that future conflicts will necessitate coalitions which do not necessarily conform to a common semantic meaning of C2 terminology. "

China's Pursuit of Africa's Natural Resources Dr Kent H Butts Collins Center Study by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "Africa is a vast continent with diverse geographic patterns and a relatively limited population. The resource base of Africa is enormous, with powerful rivers, world leading concentrations of strategic minerals, and important petroleum and uranium deposits. Nevertheless, it is comprised mainly of developing states, with limited capacity and infrastructure. Western development strategies have failed miserably in Africa, falling victim to Cold War politics, cultural differences and Africa’s colonial heritage. Long a friend of Africa in its self-declared role as leader of the developing world, China is in the midst of a resurgent African initiative based on a “politics free” development model aimed at securing access to Africa’s resource supplies. This chapter examines China’s African strategy, offers an assessment of its implications for United States (U.S.) national security, and suggests a proactive, interest based approach for dealing with this phenomenon."

Understanding Africa: A Geographic Approach COL Laurel J Hummel, Amy Richmond Krakowka Study by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "Immediately following the 2008 U.S. presidential election, which occurred around the time this book was being compiled, a fracas occurred within the media surrounding some post-election campaign gossip that the Republican party’s vice-presidential candidate had revealed during debate and briefing preparations that she did not understand that Africa was a continent, and instead believed it to be a single state. Whether that rumor was true or false is quite beside the point: the larger issue, arguably, is that many people found it even at least somewhat plausible that a person with a high school diploma—let alone a college degree—granted in the U.S. might not know that Africa is a continent."

Fighting Back: New Media and Military Operations Dennis M Murphy Study by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "The Israeli-Hezbollah War of 2006 provides recent, glaring evidence of how the current information environment has impacted the way warfare is conducted today. Hezbollah masterfully manipulated and controlled that environment to its advantage, using (at times staged and altered) photographs and videos to garner regional and worldwide support. If this doesn’t sound new, it shouldn’t…especially if you are an Israeli. Hamas effectively used the same techniques to turn the Battle of Jenin in April, 2002 into not only a strategic informational victory, but a historical legend of resistance that lives on today in the hearts and minds of Palestinians."

Leadership in the Era of the Human Singularity: New Demands, New Skills, New Response, The Proteus Monograph Series, Volume 2, Issue 4 Barton Kunstler Study by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership, Proteus Monograph Series Fellows Program "The “human singularity” refers to the integration of technology into the human body so that levels of mental acuity and physical ability eclipse all previous known levels. Because of the unique character of these enhanced human specimens, they will represent a singularity in human history, something unique and to which a new set of laws may well apply. A broad front of converging core technologies, such as nanotechnology, bioengineering, supercomputing, materials development, and robotics, may make such individuals commonplace by 2030; indeed, significant steps have already been taken to achieve this goal, and the singularity could arrive earlier."

Counterfactual Reasoning: A Basic Guide for Analysts, Strategists, and Decision Makers, The Proteus Monograph Series, Volume 2, Issue 5 Noel Hendrickson Study by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership Proteus Monograph Series Fellows Program "Counterfactual reasoning is the process of evaluating conditional claims about alternate possibilities and their consequences (i.e., “What If” statements). These alternatives can be either past possibilities (e.g., “If the United States had not abolished the Iraqi army in 2003, then the Iraqi insurgency would have been significantly smaller in 2005”) or future possibilities (e.g., “If Iran had nuclear weapons, then it would provide this technology to Hezbollah”). Counterfactuals are essential to intelligence analysis because they are implicit in all strategic assessments. For, any proposal about the appropriate response to a particular situation (past or future) assumes that certain things would or might occur if that response were made."

Proteus Futures Workshop 2006: Analyzing Future Complex National Security Challenges within the Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, and Multinational Environment Study by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "From 22 to 24 August 2006 the Proteus Management Group USA hosted an Academic Workshop to bring together specialists from academia, the defense community, and civilian organizations to share information and insights on analyzing future complex national security challenges. "

Network Centric Warfare Case Study Volume I: Operations U.S. V Corps and 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) during Operation Iraqi Freedom (March-April 2003) Mr David W Cammons, Douglas Lindsay, LTC Alan Seise, John B Tisserand III, Duane E Williams Study by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "This report highlights the results of a study of Network Centric Operations (NCO) as executed by V Corps and the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized), (3 ID (M)), during the major offensive combat operations of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) from March 2003 through April 2003. The U.S. V Corps was the senior U.S. Army tactical headquarters responsible for operations conducted primarily along and to the west of the Euphrates River, to include the seizure of Baghdad. At the onset of the campaign (crossing the Kuwait-Iraq border) 3 ID (M) was the only ground maneuver force available to V Corps and continued as the corps’ main effort through the seizure of Baghdad."