Center for Strategic Leadership

Information Operations and Winning the Peace: Wielding the Information Element of Power in the Global War on Terrorism Dennis M Murphy Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "Perhaps more than ever before Information Operations (IO) is (or at least should be) the main effort tactically, operationally, and strategically in the current phase of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). This national effort is in fact about winning the “war of ideas.” However, it’s important to understand that this way of fighting is new to the United States and new to the world for that matter. Counterinsurgencies (COIN) have been fought in the past but the U.S. has never fought a counterinsurgency in an information environment so favorable to the enemy. This information environment favors the enemy’s strengths and exploits our vulnerabilities (truth, bureaucratic layers and clearances, real time press reporting, etc.). Thus, both of these factors (IO as the main effort in COIN and the current information environment) present new and unique dilemmas that must be examined and overcome."

The Struggle Against Extremist Ideology: Addressing the Conditions That Foster Terrorism Dr Kent H Butts, COL Jeffrey C Reynolds Study by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "Since the end of the Cold War, the primary threat to United States’ national security interests has been regional instability. In the absence of superpower influence and guidance, long suppressed religious, ethnic, socioeconomic, and territorial issues began to surface and threatened the continued governance and stability of regional states. At the same time, economic and military support from the superpowers was greatly reduced, as was the capacity of regional states to build and maintain legitimacy in the eyes of their people."

The Fourth Annual USAWC Reserve Component Workshop: The Role of the National Guard in Critical Infrastructure Protection COL Richard W Dillon, Prof James O Kievit, Prof Bert B Tussing Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "The Department of Defense (DoD) Strategy for Homeland Defense and Civil Support asserts that one of the most essential and promising areas of employment for the National Guard in defense of the homeland is Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP). The strategy’s authors believe that the comprehensive assessment of critical infrastructure sites (both DoD and non-DoD), and the protection of those sites as required, are both areas in which the Guard could serve vital functions. Concurrently, the strategy reminds us that the modern threat against our country will call for an “unprecedented degree of shared situational awareness” between the interagency, state, local, tribal and private entities – a requirement that could be greatly facilitated by the traditional relationship between the Guard and the communities it serves."

Peace and Stability Education Workshop M J Cross, Tammy S Schultz Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, Center for Strategic Leadership "The U.S. Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI) conducted a Peace and Stability Education Workshop 13-15 September 2005 at the Center for Strategic Leadership, Collins Hall, Carlisle Barracks, PA. Educators and key leaders from the military services, the Joint Staff, the United Nations, international and non-government organizations (IO/NGOs), interagency offices, and centers of higher education met to explore possible strategies to improve education for senior leaders engaged in peacekeeping, stability and reconstruction operations (PS&RO)."

The Collins Center Update Volume 7, Issue 4: July - September 2005 Professor Bert Tussing, Colonel Ken Smith, Professor B.F. Griffard, COL Eugene L. Thompson, Colonel Richard Dillon Collins Center Update by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership

The Annual Collins Center Senior Symposium: Aligning the Interagency Process for the War on Terrorism Dr Kent H Butts, Prof Bert B Tussing Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "Charges have been levied, from both inside and out of the United States government, that the War on Terrorism is currently encumbered by an interagency process ill-suited for the task. That process, developed for the challenges of the Cold War, is characterized by “stove pipe” operations and resourcing initiatives in an era that demands an efficient integration of efforts for results. Endeavors to address failed/failing states, reconstruction and stabilization, and other diverse efforts focused on the underlying conditions that foster terrorism appear to be disjointed, with no central authority (save the President himself) to direct them..."

The Global War on Terror: Mistaking Ideology as the Center of Gravity LTC Cheryl L Smart Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "The Cold War was portrayed as an epic clash of two ideologies – Western Democracy versus Communism. Section IV of the defining cold war document, National Security Council 68 (NSC 68), was entitled “The Underlying Conflict in the Realm of Ideas and Values between the U.S. Purpose and the Kremlin Design,” and it argued that the basic conflict was between ideas – “the idea of freedom under a government of laws, and the idea of slavery under the grim oligarchy of the Kremlin.” The adversary resided in the Soviet Union and violence in other regions in the world – including terrorist violence – was exported from or used by this center of Communism. Today, the war of ideas is Western Democracy versus Salafi Islam..."

The State Department Office of Reconstruction and Stabilization and its Interaction with the Department of Defense COL John C Buss Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "Over the past 15 years, the United States has been involved in seven major post-conflict reconstruction and stabilization operations. The ad hoc responses that characterized U.S. stabilization efforts in these missions have often proven inadequate. On each mission, our government has struggled to provide a responsive and enduring solution. The consequences have been the unnecessary loss of life, damage to infrastructure, and higher eventual costs for reconstruction and stabilization. Our unpreparedness to respond to the instability in post-war Iraq has met with sharp criticism. In response to these failings, the Bush administration established the U.S. Department of State (DOS) Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS). This paper will analyze the functions of S/CRS, examine the organization’s relationship with the military, and offer Department of Defense (DOD) policy recommendations to improve the interagency cooperation with this new organization."

U.S. Pacific Command Combating Terrorism Symposium: Addressing the Underlying Conditions of Terrorism Dr Kent H Butts, Prof Bert B Tussing Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "In sponsorship with the United States Pacific Command (USPACOM), the National Intelligence Council (NIC), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United States Army War College’s Center for Strategic Leadership (CSL) conducted a symposium-workshop entitled Addressing the Conditions that Foster Terrorism at the Collins Center, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, on June 8-10, 2005. The symposium examined the strategies, coordination efforts, and processes devoted to diminishing the underlying conditions of terrorism and demonstrated the pressing need for greater emphasis on this key element of the United States (U.S.) combating terrorism (CT) policy."