Program on National Security
The United States has maintained the best military in the world in terms of people and weaponry. Conventionally, the U.S. military remains without peer. Unfortunately, the conventional dominance demonstrated in the Persian Gulf War signaled to adversaries that symmetrical confrontations with the United States were at best foolhardy and at worst suicidal. Conflicts from Somalia to Haiti to the Balkans proved that adversaries, while not always successful, had indeed learned that asymmetrical strategies worked best against the American conventional juggernaut.
No event has proven this more correct than the 9/11 attacks. As a consequence, the United States is confronted with an urgent conflict and clear enemy, defined as international terrorists and the countries that help them. That said, many questions remain unanswered in regards to American national security strategy. For instance:
- What forces and capabilities are necessary to undertake the Global War on Terrorism while also hedging against other threats?
- How should “defense transformation” proceed?
- How must the United States use its forces to defend its homeland while also carrying out forward presence and operations abroad?
- What is the proper role for the citizen-soldiers of the reserve components in our national security policy?
Program Activities
Building on four conferences convened by FPRI’s Defense Task Force since 1996, which culminated in the publication of a book in 2002 entitled America the Vulnerable: Our Military Problems and How to Fix Them, FPRI’s Program on National Security is designed to address the questions posed above through a focus on research, publication, and education.
- Research. The program holds annual conferences that have resulted in major policy prescriptive reports. The first conference dealt with the role of the reserves and National Guard in the 21st Century; the second explored American military strategy and force structure writ large. In the fall of 2007 the Program will hold its third conference, entitled “Mind the Gap”: Post-Iraq Civil-Military Relations in America. The next conference, slated for February 12, 2009, will consider Defense Showstoppers: National Security Challenges for the Obama Administration.
- Publication. In addition to the reports mentioned above, program materials are be published as monographs, FPRI E-Notes (distributed to over 25,000 individuals in over 85 countries) and through other publication outlets (journals, newspapers, etc.).
- Education. The program contributes to FPRI’s education program through the hosting of occasional lectures and by offering internship opportunities to college students. Additionally, the program has begun developing History Institutes for secondary school educators on the teaching of American military history. The first such Institute was held in the spring of 2007 with a follow-on conference scheduled for fall 2007.
Personnel
- The Honorable John F. Lehman, Jr., Chairman
- Michael P. Noonan, Managing Director
- John Hillen, CEO of Global Strategies Group (North America) Inc., a leading defense technology, intelligence, and international risk management firm, and former Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs.
- Frank G. Hoffman, a retired Marine Corps Reserve officer, is a noted expert on military culture, small wars, homeland defense, and defense transformation and is the author of the influential book Decisive Force.
- Dr. Mackubin Thomas Owens, Professor of Strategy at the Naval War College and a retired, decorated Marine Corps officer and an expert on geostrategy and defense policy. Also see his essays on National Review Online, where he is a contributing editor.
- Chris Seiple, President of the Institute for Global Engagement, a former Marine infantry officer and an expert on non-traditional threats.
- Dr. David Betz, Senior Lecturer in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, where he heads the Insurgency Research Group and is Academic Director of the on-line master’s degree, War in the Modern World.
Contact Information
For further details, contact Michael Noonan at mn@fpri.org or (215) 732-3774, ext. 203.
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