Suggested Themes and Topics

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German soldiers from 2 Company Multinational Engineer Battalion of NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force man an M3 Amphibious Rig bridging and ferrying system while conducting river crossing training 23 October 2018 during exercise Trident Juncture at Camp Rødsmoen in Rena, Norway. (Photo by Sgt. Marc-André Gaudreault, 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 mass refugee 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?

• 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