Challenging the United States Symmetrically and Asymmetrically: Can America be Defeated?

The U.S. Army War College s Ninth Annual Strategy Conference was held at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, during the period March 31-April 2, 1998. The theme of the conference was Challenging the United States Symmetrically and Asymmetrically: Can America Be Defeated? There were some 150 attendees, including active duty military personnel as well as members of academe, the U.S. Defense and service departments, think tanks, corporations, and news media. This book is an outgrowth of that conference, though it makes no effort to present a comprehensive and literal record of events in the mold of traditional colloquium proceedings. Rather, the book is organized as an anthology of selected conference presentations, complemented by sufficient notice of roundtable and question-and-answer discussion to provide a glimpse of the vigorous interplay of ideas evoked by this most timely of topics.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1162/thumbnail.jp

The Political-Military Rivalry for Operational Control in U.S. Military Actions: A Soldier\u27s Perspective

The author presents a soldier\u27s perspective of the operational implications of instant access to the battlefield by civilian leaders in Washington. It also suggests steps that might be taken to assure constructive collaboration between military and civil authorities, leaving each group to make its own essential contribution to success in the nation\u27s military undertakings around the world.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1163/thumbnail.jp

The Future of the American Military Presence in Europe

Ten years have elapsed since the fall of the Berlin Wall, which served as a fitting symbol for the end of the Cold War. That historic juncture brought into question the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has served Alliance members so well since its founding in 1949. It also brought into question the rationale for America\u27s continued deep involvement in European security affairs. With the gradual realization that the Russian menace is essentially dead, at least for the next 10 to 15 years and perhaps longer, and with NATO\u27s missions having evolved well beyond the original purpose of territorial defense, debate on both sides of the Atlantic has begun to intensify concerning the vital issue of where NATO should be headed and America\u27s relation to the Alliance.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1137/thumbnail.jp

Population Diversity and the U.S. Army

The Army War College, through its Strategic Outreach Program, makes a concerted effort to connect with various American civilian entities not only to promote mutual understanding, but also to find collaborative solutions for military problems that ultimately affect all Americans. Spelman College, positioned at the core of the network of historically black colleges in Atlanta and having a student body of black women, provided an ideal venue for examining issues regarding demographic and ethnic change that we expect in America over the next several decades. We should acknowledge as well the yeoman assistance of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command located at Fort Knox, Kentucky, which provided to conferees useful briefings wholly devoid of academic vapors, focusing rather upon the unvarnished realities of future projections of the composition of America\u27s population. Our Recruiting Command colleagues also discussed in clear terms the Army\u27s efforts to enlist women and members of other diverse groups in the recruiting market of today-- and what we can expect tomorrow. This book is not intended as a transcript of all conference proceedings. Rather, it is an anthology of selected presentations that not only portrays the main challenges confronting those who must staff the future force in the face of unprecedented demographic flux, but also provides the attitudes and hopes of women and minorities who are part of today\u27s Army. The reader should pay particular attention to Chapter 2, which examines the Russian military. Its author, Robert Pringle, gives us a case study in what happens when an institution collapses because it can not accommodate diversity and change.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1152/thumbnail.jp