Strategic Issues

Defense Transformation: To What, For What? COL Kevin Reynolds Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "The U.S. armed forces are transforming at a rapid rate while simultaneously fighting a Global War on Terror (GWOT). Changing tactics, techniques, procedures, and even organizations when faced with a dangerous and adaptive enemy is nothing unusual. Almost all successful armed forces have had to master change in the face of adversity. However, the changes that U.S. armed forces are adopting began long before the events of September 11, 2001. To begin to understand the scope of defense transformation and its impact on the future policy of the United States, the GWOT and the operations that define it must be viewed from the wider context of U.S. foreign and national security policy. Policymakers must recognize that the defense transformation decisions they make now are the ones with which as yet unidentified future political leaders will have to live. "

Belize 2021: Ends, Ways, Means and Risk Management: Belize National Security Strategy Formulation Process Workshop #2 COL Dale C Eikmeier, Prof Bernard F Griffard Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "On August 22, 2006 planners representing Belize’s security organizations and other government agencies reconvened to continue their national security strategy formulation process. Their initial efforts in June 2006, reported in CSL Issue Paper, Belize 2021: Developing a National Security Strategy for the Future, July 2006, Volume 06-06, produced the Belize 2021 Vision, its national goals, and identified tiered threats to success that required counter-strategies. This paper looks at the continuing process to develop Belize’s roadmap to 2021 exercised during this second strategy formulation workshop."

Belize 2021: Developing a National Security Strategy for the Future Prof Bernard F Griffard Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "Enhancing hemispheric stability and security in the Central America and Caribbean regions is dependent on the development of cohesive Regional Security Strategies. To achieve this goal the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) is setting a foundation by building regional partnerships one nation at a time. "

Military Role in Addressing the Underlying Conditions of Terrorism Arthur L Bradshaw, Dr Kent H Butts, Prof Terry Klapakis Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "The Department of Defense’s (DOD) review of the United States (U.S.) capability and capacity for combating terrorism (CT) has identified significant gaps and areas for improvement. One of these critical areas is the need to effectively Counter Ideological Support to Terrorism (CIST) and address the underlying conditions that terrorists seek to exploit. In an effort to bring interagency focus to this important CT element, the U.S. Army War College (USAWC), in collaboration with the National Intelligence Council (NIC), the U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) conducted a conference at the Army War College in June 2005 that examined its critical elements."

Proteus Insights and the Protean Media Critical Thinking Game COL William L Wimbish III Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "As our Nation continues to deal with the aftermath of 9/11, the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), and subsequent supporting operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, it has become harshly apparent that we have entered a new age of complexity. Leaders are going back to the drawing board to rethink how we deal and cope with future challenges spawned by the age of knowledge. Technology has enabled our foes to adapt and attack the fabric of our fundamental values, beliefs and foundations which have made our nation the global power it is today. These new-age threats have and will continue to be aimed at our vulnerabilities and seams. Using idiosyncratic methods and asymmetric techniques, super empowered groups and individuals are able to hide, adapt, and strike quickly, with precision."

CU @ The FOB: How the Forward Operating Base is Changing the Life of Combat Soldiers Dr Stephen J Gerras, Dr Leonard Wong Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "This inquiry has been conducted in the midst of increasing questioning by policymakers and scholars concerning the importance and role of alliances and other multilateral arrangements and legal norms affecting the use of force by the United States. Provoked in part by the transatlantic altercations surrounding Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, the questioning is driven by systemic developments—changes in the structure of world politics and changes in the shape of war—of which the Iraq-focused disputes were a symptom."

Recognizing and Understanding Revolutionary Change in Warfare: The Sovereignty of Context Dr Colin S Gray Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "This monograph provides an audit, a not-unfriendly critical review, of the concept of revolutionary military change. It offers a review of what those who theorize about, and those who are committed by policy to execute, such a revolution ought to know about their subject. As the subtitle of the analysis announces, the leading edge of the argument is the potency, indeed the sovereign importance, of warfare’s contexts."

Strategic Theory for the 21st Century: The Little Book on Big Strategy Dr Harry R Yarger Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "The word “strategy” pervades American conversation and our news media. We tend to use strategy as a general term for a plan, a concept, a course of action, or a “vision” of the direction in which to proceed at the personal, organizational, and governmental—local, state, or federal—levels. Such casual use of the term to describe nothing more than “what we would like to do next” is inappropriate and belies the complexity of true strategy and strategic thinking. It reduces strategy to just a good idea without the necessary underlying thought or development. It also leads to confusion between strategy and planning, confining strategic possibilities to near-time planning assumptions and details, while limiting the flexibility of strategic thought and setting inappropriately specific expectations of outcomes. "

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."