Suggested Themes and Topics

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Engineers with the 116th Brigade Engineer Battalion (BEB) conduct M2A3 Bradley fighting vehicle (BFV) gunnery qualification 27 March 2018 at Orchard Combat Training Center

Global Security

  • 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?

Institutional

  • 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?
  • What are the greatest threats the Army faces (either externally or internally)? How should the Army deal with them?
  • 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?

July-August 2018