Decisive Point Podcast

As the European Union deals with yet another crisis— the COVID-19 pandemic—it must adopt a grand strategy based on unity, policy, and proportionality: cohesion over inaction, policy over process, and regional imperatives over global ambitions. An analysis of past strategy documents and a study of current international trends stress the need for a Union capable of shaping its own environment rather than reacting to it. The pandemic should accelerate Europe’s journey toward power maturity and responsibility. Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol51/iss2/6/Keywords: pandemic, EU, European Union, COVID-19

In 1971 Colonel Duane H. Smith analyzed the unified command structure, examined an existing proposal for change, and suggested improvements. He illustrated how this structure must account for the challenges of the contemporary strategic environment and balance several tensions, such as effectiveness versus efficiency, flexibility versus focusing on a specific mission, and forward-deployed versus home-station forces. Many of Smith’s insights remain applicable to the unified command structure and global force management processes today.Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol51/iss1/12Keywords: Colonel Duane H. Smith, unified command structure, contemporary strategic environment, global force management

In 1971 Dr. John R. Thomas documented the involvement of the Soviet Union in the Middle East from the start of the Cold War. Like its name and borders, the motivations for that country’s involvement in the region have changed. Russia today promulgates relationships with the governments of the Middle East in a nonideological, more limited manner primarily through economic relationships, in energy and arms sales in particular, and in efforts to mitigate terror threats to the homeland.Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol51/iss1/15 Keywords: Soviet Union, Cold War, Middle East, Dr. John R. Thomas, terror threats, arms sakes

Writing in 1971, economist Dr. John P. Hardt assessed the trajectory of the Soviet economy arguing the need for reform and evaluating the willingness of key actors in the Soviet bureaucracy to support such policies. Fifty years later, Hardt was remarkably prescient with regard to structural difficulties such reform posed and the costs of delay. The pervasive role of internal and external security concerns in the following decades, however, resulted in economic decisions that defied traditional economic analysis. Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol51/iss1/14Keywords: Russia, USSR, Dr. John P. Hardt, economic analysis, internal and external security concerns

A look back at F. Gunther Eyck’s assessment of reforms enacted under US Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson may reveal as much about the historiography of the early 1970s as it does about Stimson’s reform efforts themselves. Eyck’s 1971 evaluation, among the first in a decade of scholarship examining successes and failures of Progressive Era Army reforms, raises important issues but avoids broader considerations of the sociopolitical realities of the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol51/iss1/16/Keywords: F. Gunther Eyck, US Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, Progressive Era Army reforms

Differences between the academic and military communities and the dysfunction that occurs when these communities comingle can have disastrous consequences for foreign policy. Donald Bletz, writing on the subject in 1971, details this dynamic as it related to the Vietnam War. His observations can be applied to wars since and suggest the need for a balanced relationship characterized by independence and mutual respect. Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol51/iss1/13Keywords: internationalism, post–Cold War period, regional balances of power, US Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, Progressive Era Army reforms

The dilemmas posed by coalition warfare were a subject of academic interest in the inaugural issue of Parameters in 1971. Lieutenant Colonel James B. Agnew examined the unified command model pursued by the Allies during the First World War. Agnew’s assessment of the challenges faced by French Marshal Ferdinand Foch speaks to challenges NATO faces today including questions of national sovereignty, national security goals, and developing a joint strategy. Read the article:https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol51/iss1/17/Keywords: NATO, Allies, World War I, French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, LTC James B. Agnew

Regaining the military advantage in the Indo-Pacific region requires renewed thinking about the US military footprint there, particularly the role of the US Army. The Army’s deterrence and partnering capabilities will be best utilized by engaging its long-range and precision-strike capabilities in a regional “Ring of Fires” concept and further enhanced as part of a broader revitalization and expansion of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol51/iss1/5/Keywords: Indo-Pacific region, INDOPACOM, Quadrilateral Security Dialogue

Regaining the military advantage in the Indo-Pacific region requires renewed thinking about the US military footprint there, particularly the role of the US Army. The Army’s deterrence and partnering capabilities will be best utilized by engaging its long-range and precision-strike capabilities in a regional “Ring of Fires” concept and further enhanced as part of a broader revitalization and expansion of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol51/iss1/5Keywords: disability, Veterans, US Army, Army Readiness, US Army doctrine

Today, two-thirds of soldiers depart the US Army with a disability rating. Unfortunately, some soldiers are exploiting a generous disability system overextended beyond its original purposes and potentially damaging trust in the military, jeopardizing Army readiness, and encouraging a culture that erodes the Army’s notions of selfless service. Read the Monograph: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/922Keywords: Middle East, US Army, COVID 19, US military doctrine, US strategy