Strategy & Policy

The Limits of Offshore Balancing Dr Hal Brands Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press "Should the United States undertake a fundamental strategic retrenchment? Should it roll back, and perhaps do away with, the system of overseas security commitments and military deployments that have anchored its international posture since World War II? Many academic and strategic studies observers have answered “yes” to these questions in recent years. They assert that America’s long-standing, postwar grand strategy has become both dispensable and self-defeating—dispensable because that grand strategy is no longer needed to sustain an advantageous global environment, and self-defeating because it wastes finite means while eliciting adverse behavior from allies and adversaries alike. The proper response to this situation, they believe, is to adopt a minimalist approach referred to as “offshore balancing.” Briefly stated, offshore balancing envisions a dramatic reduction in America’s overseas military deployments and alliance commitments, and a shift toward greater restraint and modesty in U.S. policy writ large. It is premised on the idea that this type of retrenchment will actually produce better security outcomes at a better price— that when it comes to grand strategy, less will actually be more."

Using Target Audience Analysis to Aid Strategic Level Decisionmaking Dr Steve Tatham Letort Paper by US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press "Albert Einstein famously stated that: “Any fool can know; the point is to understand.” Over the past 20 years, the United States has known that there exist people with a profound hatred of all that it and the West are, and all that it stands for. During that time the American people and our allies abroad have known war in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and we know that today in Syria, Iraq, in Nigeria and North Africa those enemies plan and plot more violence and more hatred against us. Yet, do we really understand? If there is one observation that has been repeated by military commanders and policymakers alike from almost every nation in our various coalitions, it is the idea that we have not understood our adversary properly."

The Strategic Lessons Unlearned from Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan: Why the ANSF Will Not Hold, and the Implications for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan Dr M Chris Mason Book by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press "Military personnel who have experience in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Vietnam, as well as senior leaders and military historians alike, will find this book by Dr. Chris Mason thought-provoking and useful. Dr. Mason examines indigenous personnel issues at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels of war and uses empirical data and exhaustive research to argue that all three wars were lost before the first shots were fired—not on the battlefield, but at the strategic level of war."

From Cooperation to Competition - The Future of U.S. - Russian Relations COL Gregory K Anderson, COL Karen L Briggman, COL Joseph E Hilbert, COL Gert-Jan Kooij, Lt Col Christopher T Lay, Dr James C McNaughton War Game Report by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership, Carlisle Scholars Program, Strategic Studies Institute "Russian aggression in 2014 caught U.S. policy and strategy off guard, forcing reactive measures and reevaluation of the U.S. approach toward Russia. Moscow employed nonlinear methodologies and operated just beneath traditional thresholds of conflict to take full advantage of U.S. and NATO policy and process limitations. In light of this strategic problem, the U.S. Army War College (USAWC), conducted a wargame that revealed four key considerations for future policy and strategy."

Sustainable Transportation: Strategy for Security, Prosperity and Peace Colonel Blace C Albert, LTC James P Allen PKSOI Paper US Army War College, Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, US Army War College Press "In this article LTC Allen and COL Albert identify how a strategic transportation vision and the discipline to build and maintain that network over several decades can start and enhance the growth of a country. Transportation is the backbone to a stable economy and it provides efficiencies that can help a struggling economy reverse its decline and prosper over the long term. The other points in the work also emphasize that a transportation system must be continually evaluated to ensure that it remains robust and maintained."

Central Asia's Shrinking Connectivity Gap: Implications for U.S. Strategy Mr Roman Muzalevsky Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press "Once sealed off from the rest of the world during the Soviet times, the states of Central Asia today are rapidly integrating with the global economy. The opening up of China in the 1980s, the demise of the Soviet Union a decade later, and the ongoing globalization have all served as grand forces facilitating this highly monumental development. The U.S. regional military involvement after September 11, 2001, and engagement by other actors have further enabled these countries to reconnect with the world, this time as sovereign units. Today, more than 2 decades after they gained their independence, the Central Asian countries, along with the rest of the world, face a great challenge and an opportunity—the rise of China, India, and resurgence of Russia. These neighboring powers are investing and facilitating internal and external links of the region and profoundly shaping the region’s external connectivity at the very time as the United States withdraws its troops from Afghanistan and sees a relative decline in its global and regional power and influence. "

Strategic Insights: Should China Be Given the Benefit of the Doubt? David Lai Article by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press "The South China Sea territorial dispute is a protracted and complicated problem. Recently, it has become an even more contentious issue between the United States and China. At the center of this disagreement is China's massive territorial claims and its persistent approach to dealing with the disputes in bilateral and diplomatic ways."

Strategic Insights: America's Strategic Debate – And Why It Matters To The Army Dr Steven Metz Article by US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press "Since becoming a global superpower, the United States often adjusted its national strategy. Over time, the effectiveness of any given strategy erodes. This sparks debate about America’s appropriate role in the world, and about where, when, and why national power should be used. From the debate, a revised approach takes shape and lasts until its effectiveness fades. Then the cycle starts again."

The Myths of Army Expansibility Dr Conrad C Crane, Dr Michael E Lynch, Dr James D. Scudieri Historical Research Review by US Army War College, Army Heritage and Education Center "This study analyzes the US Army's experiences from the twentieth century to the present, given the demands of modem war and associated structures, including political, industrial, and military. These examples generally mirrored those from earlier wars. Broadly speaking, United States defense policy has relied upon a small regular army (RA), expandable upon the outbreak of war. That expanded army then largely demobilized upon war's end. Reliance upon state militias to augment the regular army in the American Revolution of 1775-83 and the War of 1812 to 1814 changed to volunteer troops vice militia in the Mexican War of 1846-48 and the American Civil War of 1861-65..."