Strategic Issues

Revisions in Need of Revising: What Went Wrong in the Iraq War Dr David C Hendrickson, Dr Robert W Tucker Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "David C. Hendrickson and Robert W. Tucker examine the contentious debate over the Iraq war and occupation, focusing on the critique that the Bush administration squandered an historic opportunity to reconstruct the Iraqi state because of various critical blunders in planning. Though they conclude that critics have made a number of telling points against the Bush administration’s conduct of the Iraq war, they argue that the most serious problems facing Iraq and its American occupiers—criminal anarchy and lawlessness, a raging insurgency, and a society divided into rival and antagonistic groups—were virtually inevitable consequences that flowed from the act of war itself."

Coup D'Oeil: Strategic Intuition in Army Planning Dr William Duggan Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "In our military professions, formal analytical methods co-exist with intuitive decisionmaking by leaders in action. For the most part, there is no harm done. But many officers can recount times when they knew they should have “gone with their gut,” but followed instead the results of their analytical methods. The gap between these two forms of decisionmaking perhaps has grown wider in recent times, especially in Iraq, where adaptive leadership seems to have overshadowed formal methods of planning. Departing from formal methods increasingly seems to be the mark of an effective commander, as we learn from Dr. Leonard Wong’s recent Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) report, Developing Adaptive Leaders: The Crucible Experience of Operation Iraqi Freedom (July 2004)."

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."

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

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)."

Implications of DoD Directive 3000 Dr Douglas V Johnson II Op-Ed by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "Department of Defense (DoD) Directive 3000: Department of Defense Capabilities for Stability Operations (DRAFT) has now progressed through two or three iterations and appears to be approaching formal publication. The directive could be one of the most important documents of this decade, whether properly or improperly written and interpreted."

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."

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."

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..."