SMA Perspectives Virtual Discussion

August 2021 No Comments

Present and Future Challenges to Maintaining Balance Between Global Cooperation and Competition

Please note that this event has already taken place.

Tuesday, August 24th 2021             12:00 – 15:45(EST)

Wednesday, August 25th 2021    12:00 – 15:30(EST)

Please join SMA for our 2021 Virtual Discussion; a two-day companion event to our recently released SMA Perspectives volume, Present and Future Challenges to Maintaining Balance Between Global Cooperation and Competition. The Discussion will feature four panel conversations among the authors. We will conclude with a summary session with panel moderators that will draw out key insights from, and connections between panels. Agenda below is tentative and subject to change.

No registration required. Virtual capacity capped at 350.

The link to join the event along with other event updates will be sent via email. To get on the mailing list to receive notification (and all other questions), please email Mariah Yager at mariah.c.yager.ctr@mail.mil by 20 August.

Day 1: August 24th

Welcome and Introductory Remarks | 12:00 – 12:10(EST)

Mr. Todd Veazie, Director, Strategic Multilayer Assessment

Dr. Hriar “Doc” Cabayan, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)

Opening Remarks | 12:10 – 12:30(EST)

ADM Charles A. Richard, USSTRATCOM

Dr. Isaiah Wilson, JSOU

Panel 1: Emerging overarching geopolitical challenges | 12:30 – 14:00(EST)

  • What are appropriate concepts to describe the new operating environment?
  • Is the binary either-peace-or-war view of the operating environment obsolete? Are there needs for new strategies?
  • What are the similarities and differences between the United States, Russian, and Chinese definitions of strategic stability? What is the impact on global security of the interplay of different countries’ security concepts?

Moderator: Dr. Allison Astorino-Courtois, NSI Inc.

Panelists: Dr. Ralph Clem, Florida International University, Dr. Michael Mazarr, RAND, Dr. Adam N. Stulberg, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Georgia Institute of Technology

Panel 2: Key Attributes of the Geopolitical Terrain | 14:15 – 15:45(EST)

  • What role do populations play in this emerging global order?
  • What is the impact on security of a decline in popular trust in governments and formal institutions, as well as increased polarization within Western societies?
  • What is the impact of revolutionary technological advances?
  • What are the implications of predatory economic and business practices, legal actions, public opinion manipulation, and other subversive actions?
  • What role does ideological competition play pitting the legacy liberal, rules-based, Western model led by the US against its authoritarian and far less inclusive Chinese and Russian alternatives?
  • What roles should trust and confidence play in this emerging strategic thinking?

Moderator: Mr. Robert Tompkins, USSOCOM

Panelists: Mr. John Collison, USSOCOM, J59, Mr. Bob Jones, USSOCOM, Mr. Daniel Lane, USSOCOM, J59, Dr. David Montgomery, University of Maryland

Day 2: August 25th

Panel 3: Outline of New and Emerging Security Requirements| 12:00 – 13:30(EST)

  • How might the definition of strategic stability have shifted?
  • How should the cooperation-competition continuum be managed for the purpose of avoiding military, economic, political, or other unacceptable forms of competition that would undermine critical US and Ally security objectives?
  • How should the US and Allies balance cooperation and competition to maintain strategic stability and avoid escalation towards conflict?
  • What are key demographic issues, migration, IDPs, etc…that need to be folded into the planning process?
  • What role do institutions and domestic politics play in this New/Emerging Security Requirements theme?
  • What role do agility and ability to adapt to the new realities of complexity play?
  • What are the bounds of competition? How do we distinguish competition from cooperation and conflict? Is a balance really what we are after?

Moderator: Lt Col David Lyle, LeMay Center for Doctrine and Education, Air University

Panelists: Dr. Cynthia J. Buckley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign & Dr. Erik Herron, West Virginia University

Panel 4: Implications for Future Planning| 13:45 – 15:15(EST)

  • What “new” security concepts are needed to establish and maintain strategic stability in periods that vary between competition and cooperation?
  • Is adapting legacy concepts and supplementing these with new concepts most appropriate for scoping future planning requirements?
  • What are the requirements for a new operating model or paradigm to better reflect the complexity of evolving threats in today’s increasingly complex, dynamic, and interconnected environment?
  • How can we influence adversary benefits of restraint?
  • How is “new thinking” a mission requirement? And what opportunities are there to innovate and move ahead with concepts and paradigms specifically designed to address current issues head on?
  • Bottom Line: What does the United States aspire to be on the world stage in the future? We have aspired to be the “leader of the free world” since WW 2. Is that still who we wish to be?  Do we wish to be something else?

Moderator: Lt Gen (Ret) Robert Elder, George Mason University

Panelists: LTG(R) Michael K. Nagata, CACI International, Dr. Allison Astorino-Courtois, NSI Inc., & Lt Col David Lyle, LeMay Center for Doctrine and Education, Air University

Closing Remarks | 15:15 – 15:30(EST)

Mr. Todd Veazie, Director, Strategic Multilayer Assessment

Dr. Hriar “Doc” Cabayan, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)

Comments

Submit A Comment