The Future Face of Conflict

**Ray** · 18 Oct 08,, 05:43

WPR Feature: The Future Face of Conflict

The Editors | 15 Oct 2008
World Politics Review Exclusive

In the midst of two wars and with an "era of persistent conflict" foreseen ahead, America and its military are confronting battlefield urgencies and operational complexities that challenge the very way in which we conceive of warfare. Whether on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, or on the waters off of Somalia, the reality of today's conflicts have exposed gaps in our tactical thinking and operational approach to waging war.

The responses have combined doctrinal evolutions and operational innovations, demonstrating once again the strategic asset represented by American ingenuity and creative thinking. But they have also generated a passionate and at times heated debate, both within the military and the academy. In our first set of biweekly feature articles centered around a theme, WPR takes a look at the Future Face of Conflict, in an effort to put those debates in context.

In The U.S. Army's Doctrinal Renaissance, Jack Kem of the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth discusses the genesis and significance of the Army's recently released Stability Operations manual, and what it means for future warfighting.

In Human Terrain Teams, Paul McLeary, a senior editor at Defense Technology International, gives a close up account of the Army's innovative use of social scientists to make stability operations in Iraq and Afghanistan more effective and ultimately less lethal.

In No Quick Solutions to Pirate Crisis (a piece that we published early due to its timeliness), David Axe, correspondent and WPR regular columnist, investigates the Somali pirate epidemic and explains how this new threat represents a sea-based problem with roots in what remain land-based causes.

Photo: An Army majorattached to a Human Terrain Team talks to a local sheik in Nani,Afghanistan, June 2, 2007 (DOD photo by Army Staff Sgt. Michael L.Casteel).
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=2778

http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=2773

http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=2774

http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=2744

Any comments?

**Swift Sword** · 26 Oct 08,, 17:49

Originally Posted by Ray

Any comments?

Morning, Sir,

Having given purview to the materials you have kindly supplied, I can comment as follows (one point per link):

1. While I understand the corporate need for and rationale behind the promulgation of military doctrine, necessity seems to dictate doctrine is arrived at by looking backwards and therein lies the bugbear: if one looks backwards, there is a marked tendency to think backwards. Perhaps that is the nature of the beast and I have no easy answers but the trap is well understood and hopefully it can be avoided.

2. "Human Terrain Teams", "Culture Warriors", "They're talking to each other!"...shades of Col. Channon's work a few decades back, perhaps...maybe even a validation?

3. As to piracy (whether in Somalia or elsewhere) the mattock appears to be the traditional cure for that sort of nonsense so perhaps we ought to try it.

[Insert a Swift Sword Pet Rant Here]

Conventional wisdom seems to hold that idle hands in Africa are a sure recipe for ambient Deviltry so perhaps we mine clear and irrigate the Libyan Desert to keep the whole continent productively occupied and handsomely provisioned for a very long time.

Empty hands, empty heads and empty bellies are the three easiest to solve problems extant since Gilgamesh had the grand thought of walling the sheep folds of Ur.

[Pet Rant Mode Off]

William