Suggested Themes and Topics

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Soldiers from the 14th Field Artillery Regiment in partnership with the United Arab Emirates 79th Heavy Rocket Regiment conduct a seventy-two-hour joint exercise called Operation Golden Eagle 9 May 2018 in the Middle East to test their capabilities and limitations. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army)

• Futures Command


• What nations consider themselves to be at war or in conflict with the United States? Nonstate actors? How are they conducting war, and what does this mean for the Army?


• What operational and logistical challenges are foreseen due to infrastructure limitations in potential foreign areas of operation and how can we mitigate them?


• What lessons did we learn during recent hurricane relief operations?


• What is the role of the military in protecting natural resources?


• What lessons have we learned from U.S. counterinsurgent military assistance in Africa?


• What are the security threats, concerns, and events resulting from illegal immigration into Europe?


• Saudi Arabia and Iran: How are cultural changes in both societies affecting the operational environment and potential for conflict between them?


• Iran: What should the U.S. military do to prepare for and promote normalization?


• Case study: How does Japan's effort to establish the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" compare with current Chinese efforts to expand control over the South China Sea?


• Are changes demanded to the professional development models of the officer and NCO structure in the face of large scale combat operations and increased readiness requirements?


• What is the correlation between multi-domain operations and large-scale combat operations?


• How should this impact the Army’s training, readiness, and doctrine?


• What material solutions are required to fulfill the Army's unified land operations obligations in large scale combat operations?


• What is needlessly duplicated in the Army (e.g., what should be done away with, how should the Army adjust, and how would it benefit)?


• What must be done to adjust junior leader development to a modern operational environment?


• What must we do to develop a more effective means of developing and maintaining institutional memory in order to deal with emerging challenges?


• What is the role for the Army in homeland security operations? What must the Army be prepared for?


• Case studies: How do we properly integrate emerging technology?


• What are the potential adverse impacts on military standards due to factors associated with poor integration of new cultures, ethnicities, or racial considerations and how can those impacts be mitigated?


• Case study: How is gender integration changing the Army and how it operates?


• Case study: How does tactical-level military governance during occupation following World War II and Operation Iraqi Freedom compare?


• After eighteen years of institutional/operational experience largely focused on counterinsurgency, how do we return to preparing for large-scale combat operations (LSCO)?

• See/understand/seize fleeting opportunities?
• Develop the situation in contact and chaos?
• Offset “one-off” dependencies and contested domains?
• Rapidly exploit positions of advantage?
• Survive in hyperlethal engagements?
• Continuously present multiple dilemmas to the enemy?
• Decide and act at speed?
• Fully realize mission command?

March-April 2019