ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Future Warfighting Requires Agile Training

Adopting Mission Command: Developing Leaders for a Superior Command Culture. Donald E. Vandergriff. Naval Institute Press (An AUSA Title). 320 pages. $49.95

By Col. J.P. Clark

A “significant difference between what mission command should be versus what actually happens exists,” the commanders of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command and the Mission Command Center of Excellence wrote in a Military Review article earlier this year. This admission by the generals is only the most notable example of years of institutional soul-searching regarding the...

The Army is in the midst of a reorientation—planning and preparing for conflict with peer and near-peer adversaries, as directed by the 2018 National Military Strategy. This reorientation will involve changes big and small, with the Army embracing both new technologies and concepts—such as unmanned systems and Multi-Domain Operations—and dusting off and updating old ones—such as camouflage and electronic warfare.

But one thing is strikingly absent: Army leaders are not giving sufficient consideration to the threat of nuclear weapons.

For nearly two decades, the U.S. military has been focused on...

Sun Tzu said, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” Today, this supreme art is taking on unprecedented forms in the cyber environment. Wars are fought and the hearts and minds of populations captured in a landscape with no borders using armies of bots, cyborgs, trolls and sock puppets. Army leaders of the 21st century must be aware of the changing nature of information warfare and its impact on soldiers, operations, the operating environment, and the nation and society we defend.

Today, the borderless internet is used by state and nonstate actors to manipulate...

Sun Tzu said, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” Today, this supreme art is taking on unprecedented forms in the cyber environment. Wars are fought and the hearts and minds of populations captured in a landscape with no borders using armies of bots, cyborgs, trolls and sock puppets. Army leaders of the 21st century must be aware of the changing nature of information warfare and its impact on soldiers, operations, the operating environment, and the nation and society we defend.

Today, the borderless internet is used by state and nonstate actors to manipulate...

Command Sgt. Maj. Michael A. Grinston, who is to be sworn in on Aug. 16 as the next sergeant major of the Army, has said we need to get “back to the basics.” In my 30-plus years of service, I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard that remark. But in the end, it is always about the basics. Having served at all levels of NCO leadership, I can attest that the basics are what, in the end, will help you win.

So, here are some thoughts from an old-school NCO on what it means to get back to the basics, and what has been the core of my teaching, coaching and soldier mentoring over more than three...

In 2018, service academy cadets across the country participated in a Service Academy Gender Relations Survey conducted by DoD’s Office of People Analytics. The results of the survey, released this past spring, showed that 48% of women and 17% of men at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, experienced sexual harassment, an estimated 273 cadets experienced unwanted sexual contact, and only 60% of the academy’s 4,400 cadets believed their peer leaders make honest and reasonable efforts to stop sexual assault and harassment. The survey response rate was 81%.

These results have not...

In 2018, service academy cadets across the country participated in a Service Academy Gender Relations Survey conducted by DoD’s Office of People Analytics. The results of the survey, released this past spring, showed that 48% of women and 17% of men at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, experienced sexual harassment, an estimated 273 cadets experienced unwanted sexual contact, and only 60% of the academy’s 4,400 cadets believed their peer leaders make honest and reasonable efforts to stop sexual assault and harassment. The survey response rate was 81%.

These results have not...

Why do so many command team and leadership vacancies exist in the U.S. Army Reserve, and why do its leaders allow units to struggle through such obstacles? The Reserve suffers from a severe shortage of battalion commanders and, to a lesser degree, command sergeants major to fill these critical leadership positions. The solution is easy and readily available, requiring minimal additional effort to mitigate the impact of shortfalls. Vacant Troop Program Unit command team positions should be filled with qualified Active Guard Reserve soldiers.

Troop Program Unit (TPU) soldiers make up over 90% of...

Why do so many command team and leadership vacancies exist in the U.S. Army Reserve, and why do its leaders allow units to struggle through such obstacles? The Reserve suffers from a severe shortage of battalion commanders and, to a lesser degree, command sergeants major to fill these critical leadership positions. The solution is easy and readily available, requiring minimal additional effort to mitigate the impact of shortfalls. Vacant Troop Program Unit command team positions should be filled with qualified Active Guard Reserve soldiers.

Troop Program Unit (TPU) soldiers make up over 90% of...

War Game Narrative Holds Real-World Truths

The Senkaku Paradox: Risking Great Power War Over Small Stakes. Michael O’Hanlon. Brookings Institution Press. 272 pages. $27.99

By Maj. Nathan K. Finney

What are the chances the United States would go to war over small, local crises on its periphery, largely unimportant to its own interests, but vital to its core alliances around the world? This is the inherent question Michael O’Hanlon seeks to answer by developing solutions to such challenges in The Senkaku Paradox: Risking Great Power War Over Small Stakes.

As a senior fellow in foreign policy at the...

The international community is in a period of significant instability—an instability that could lead to a major conventional war, even if such a war does not look like World War II or the World War III we prepared for during the Cold War. A new version of conventional war is not inevitable, but its probability will increase or decrease depending upon how the international community reacts to the emerging security trends and how the U.S. defines its role in the world.

The idea of a major conventional war runs counter to those who hold that the future of war is one of small, asymmetric conflicts...

On March 4, 2018, British authorities say Russian agents poisoned Sergei Skripal—a former Russian military intelligence officer and U.K. double agent—and his daughter using a Novichok nerve agent. The attack took place in Salisbury, England, a town of 50,000 people about 90 miles southwest of London. While it failed to kill Skripal, he remained unconscious for a month and hospitalized for more than two months. His daughter remained in critical condition for three weeks before she regained consciousness and was released from the hospital a month after the attack.

With the immediate attack area...

When Gen. James C. McConville testified at his Senate confirmation hearing to become chief of staff of the Army, his three children sat behind him: all captains in the U.S. Army.

While the U.S. is fortunate to have families such as the McConvilles, this scene renewed concerns over the “civil-military gap” between service members and the society they defend. The data is indeed concerning: Military veterans are twice as likely as civilians to have children in the military. This trend has accelerated since the end of the draft in 1973. In 2011, the Pew Research Center found that 77% of Americans...

In response to increasingly complex threats from our near-peer adversaries, the Army must chart a clear path to provide flexible, agile and integrated air and missile defense forces capable of deploying, fighting and winning against any adversary.

The Multi-Domain Operations concept emphasizes the importance of active engagement by the Army in competition to defend U.S. interests, deter conflict and, when needed, create the most favorable conditions for rapid transition to armed conflict. To that end, critical resources of the air and missile defense enterprise are focused on synchronizing...

For many young leaders, the Army can be a frustrating experience. They see areas that can be improved upon, but quickly become frustrated with conservative leadership, bloated bureaucracies and navigating a system that can favor time in service and rank over good ideas.

In 1970, economist Albert O. Hirschman published a treatise titled, “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty.” While the essay falls within the area of economics, it offers some food for thought to leaders serving in the Army today. Hirschman compares two competing paths that members of an organization can take when the organization isn’t...