Strategy & Policy

The 2006 Lebanon Campaign and the Future of Warfare: Implications for Army and Defense Policy Dr Stephen D Biddle, Mr Jeffrey A Friedman Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "The future of nonstate military actors is a central issue for U.S. strategy and defense planning. It is widely believed that such combatants will be increasingly common opponents for the U.S. military, and many now advocate sweeping change in U.S. military posture to prepare for this—the debate over the associated agenda for “low-tech” or irregular warfare transformation is quickly becoming one of the central issues for U.S. defense policy and strategy. As a prominent recent example of a nonstate actor fighting a Westernized state, Hezbollah’s 2006 campaign thus offers a window into a kind of warfare that is increasingly central to the defense debate in the United States. And the case’s implications for U.S. policy have already become highly controversial. "

Work Group 2 - Assessing the Evolving Relationship of the National Guard to Other Components of Domestic Crisis Response Dennis M Murphy Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "The new National Strategy for Homeland Security, the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2008, Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8, Annex 1, and a host of other initiatives have signaled what could result in significant changes in the roles played by the Reserve Component in domestic preparedness, response and recovery operations. The National Guard Bureau (NGB) in particular may be postured to take on expanded responsibilities in these areas as its Chief assumes a new status as an advisor to the Secretary of Defense."

2008 Key Strategic Issues List Antulio J. Echevarria II Document by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "The Key Strategic Issues List (KSIL) offers military and civilian researchers a ready reference of topics that are of particular interest to the Department of the Army and the Department of Defense. The KSIL performs a valuable service by linking the research community with major defense organizations which, in turn, seek to benefit from focused research. It thus forms a critical link in an ongoing research cycle. With the publication of the AY 2008-09 KSIL, the Strategic Studies Institute and the U.S. Army War College invite the research community to address any of the many strategic challenges identified herein. Further information regarding specific topics can be obtained by contacting SSI faculty or relevant KSIL sponsors."

Wars of Ideas and the War of Ideas Dr Antulio J Echevarria II Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "Despite widespread emphasis on the importance of winning the war of ideas in recent strategic literature, we find few analytical studies of wars of ideas as such. With that in mind, this monograph offers a brief examination of four common types of wars of ideas, and uses that as a basis for analyzing how the United States and its allies and strategic partners might proceed in the current war of ideas. "

The Strategy Deficit Mr Nathan P Freier Op-Ed by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "An honest survey of post-Cold War national security policy exhibits a dangerous strategy deficit. The word “strategy” is overused. The concept, too, is poorly applied. It is many things to contemporary policymakers except, well—strategy. In the current environment, strategic communications and strategy have become synonymous. Strategic communications is the carefully crafted but overly general and widely consumable articulation of key political messages—“assure, deter, dissuade, defeat”; “as they stand up, we’ll stand down”; “clear, hold, build”; “phased strategic redeployment”; etc, etc, etc..."

Using Sustainability to Build Stability in Africa: Strategic Policy Issues for the Army Arthur L Bradshaw, Dr Kent H Butts, Mr Brian D Smith Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "Sustainability means meeting the demands placed on the system today without compromising the needs of future generations. Thus, the over consumption, abuse, or pollution of a country’s natural resource base today will cause the country to fail when it cannot meet the demands placed upon the political system by future generations. The workshop series aims at to examine how the Army can leverage sustainability as an approach to engaging African nations. Working within the context of U.S. Africa Command’s (USAFRICOM) strategic vision, sustainability provides an approach to engagement that will support the capacity of African militaries so that they may help civilian governments address sustainability issues and maintain the legitimacy necessary to prevent state failure and instability. "

Transforming to Effects-Based Operations: Lessons from the United Kingdom Experience Dr Andrew M Dorman Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "The United Kingdom has remained one of the oldest and closest U.S. allies. It has continued to engage in a variety of operations across the globe in countries ranging from Afghanistan and Iraq to the Balkans and Sierra Leone and has undertaken these tasks within a defense budget that has continued to decline as a percentage of gross domestic product. This has meant a series of changes to the traditional approach to defense that has gone much further than that of the United States and many of its European counterparts. As part of this process, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces have officially sought to adopt an effects-based approach to operations within the context of an overall “comprehensive approach” that supposedly brings together the various organs of government. The author of this monograph, Dr. Andrew M. Dorman, evaluates the relative success the United Kingdom has had in adapting to this change, identifying a number of successes and pitfalls from which other countries could well learn."

On the Uses of Cultural Knowledge Dr Sheila Miyoshi Jager Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "This monograph, by Dr. Sheila Miyoshi Jager, explores the role that cultural knowledge must play in thinking about a new strategy for counterinsurgency. Although the importance of cultural awareness and understanding of adversary societies has been widely recognized as essential to operations and tactics on the battlefield, Dr. Jager argues its significance has been largely ignored in formulating the broader strategic goals of counterinsurgency. This monograph highlights the importance of culture, and cultural awareness, in formulating a broad strategy for counterinsurgency which also has wide-ranging implications for U.S. foreign policy."

Working and Playing Well with Others: A Strategy-Policy Mismatch in Export Controls LTC Charles H Wilson Op-Ed by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "Reading through the strategic guidance that our Nation has been operating under for a number of years, you can find a basic, common concept that I like to refer to as “work and play well with others.” It is derived from statements like “partnerships continue to be the principle source of our strength”1 and “the reform of NATO structures, capabilities and procedures must be accelerated.”2 Those are just two examples of the many similar references that are imbedded throughout documents from the National Security Strategy to CJCS-approved military strategies. The concept is also routinely reflected in guidance at lower levels of government, such as that developed by our Combatant Commanders."