Transformation Concepts for National Security in the 21st Century

Abstract

Abstract : The famous Confederate General Stonewall Jackson noted that To move swiftly, strike vigorously, and secure all the fruits of the victory is the secret of successful war. This observation is at the very heart of the current discussion and experimentation on how the transformed joint services of the United States should employ force in the 21st century. The services are exploring concepts such as Effects Based Operations and Rapid Decisive Operations to move swiftly and strike vigorously to secure victory in the coming decades. At the same time the nation and its armed forces are developing new concepts of homeland security to defend the country in the war on terrorism. The following chapters represent some of the thinking by students at the U.S. Army War College, considering the nature and direction of transformation concepts that deal with these issues. This is the second volume of essays written by the students in the Advanced Strategic Arts Program at the U.S. Army War College. Like last year's volume, it addresses the question of transformation, but this time within the larger framework of joint concepts and capabilities that are likely to drive processes within the Army and other services over the coming decade. Already joint or service concepts such as effects-based operations and operational net assessment are having considerable influence over how the Department of Defense (DoD) is conceptualizing the problems of transformation. In one form or another, the Army must address those concepts from the perspective of its history a history that encompasses the whole strategic and operational framework of the U.S. military from the American War of Independence to the present. With that historical framework in mind, it must become an active partner in bringing substance to what has so far, more often than not, represented processes of conceptual development long on claims and short on serious intellectual content.