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U.S.-Mexico Homeland Defense: A Compatible Interface

Victor E. Renuart Jr. and Biff Baker

This paper responds to a previous Strategic Forum (no. 243, July 2009) entitled U.S.-Mexico Defense Relations: An Incompatible Interface by Craig Deare. Some of the assertions and conclusions within Dr. Deare’s paper were flawed due to an outdated U.S.-Mexico paradigm that preceded the 9/11 attacks and recent counter-drug operations in Mexico. If his work had been published prior to the establishment of U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), it would have been well received, but times have changed. Because of our collective experiences over the past 6 years, we find implausible the notion that USNORTHCOM is not staffed or experienced enough to support Mexico’s security cooperation needs. Hence, U.S.-Mexico Homeland Defense: A Compatible Interface is intended to set the record straight by pointing out the numerous areas of cooperation between Mexico and the United States since the establishment of USNORTHCOM.
Strengthening the IAEA: How the Nuclear Watchdog Can Regain Its Bark

Gregory L. Schulte

Yukiya Amano recently became the new Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the world’s nuclear watchdog. Amano, an experienced Japanese diplomat, faces a challenging agenda: stalled investigations into the clandestine nuclear activities of Iran and Syria, the need to ensure high levels of safety and security as more countries opt for nuclear power, the dangers associated with the spread of technologies readily diverted to build nuclear bombs, a threat of nuclear terrorism not taken seriously by all IAEA members, and a Board of Governors too often split between developed and developing countries.
Iraqi Security Forces after U.S. Troop Withdrawal: An Iraqi Perspective

Najim Abed Al-Jabouri

As U.S. Armed Forces draw down in Iraq, there is increasing concern about the possibility of resurgent ethnic and sectarian tensions. Many Iraqis believe that the United States may be making a grave mistake by not fully using its remaining leverage to insulate the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) from the politi- cal influence of the incumbent Iraqi sectarian political parties. U.S. efforts to rebuild the ISF have focused on much needed training and equipment, but have neglected the greatest challenge facing the forces’ ability to maintain security upon U.S. withdrawal: an ISF politi- cized by ethno-sectarian parties. These ties pose the largest obstacle to the ISF in its quest to become genuinely professional and truly national in character.
To Build Resilience: Leader Influence on Mental Hardiness

Paul T. Bartone, Charles L. Barry, and Robert E. Armstrong

The military profession is inherently stressful and is getting more so for U.S. troops, who are deploying more often and for longer periods of time on missions that are multifaceted, changeable, and ambiguous. Such stressful conditions can lead to a range of health problems and performance decrements even among leaders. But not everyone reacts in negative ways to environmental stress. Most people remain healthy and continue to perform well even in the face of high stress levels. While much attention in recent years has focused on identifying and treating stress-related breakdowns such as post-traumatic stress disorder, scant investment has gone toward the study of healthy, resilient response patterns in people.
Aligning Disarmament to Nuclear Dangers: Off to a Hasty START?

David A. Cooper

Confronted by a daunting array of nuclear threats, and having pledged to reinvigorate the application of disarmament tools to address these dangers, the Obama administration has decided to focus its initial efforts on negotiating a new bilateral agreement with Russia to replace the Cold War–era Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which expires at the end of this year.
U.S.-Mexico Defense Relations: An Incompatible Interface

Craig A. Deare

The United States and Mexico share a history that was shaped in the 19th century by numerous interventions by U.S. forces into Mexican territory and U.S. expropriation of considerable Mexican land. Although largely forgotten on the northern side of the border, this history has left a scar on the collective national psyche of Mexico, most notably on the military forces.
Breaking the Yardstick: The Dangers of Market-based Governance

Don J. DeYoung

In the middle of the last century, America became a superpower. It happened, in part, because of a well-balanced technological partnership between the Federal Government and commercial sector. After winning a world war against fascism, this public-private alliance went on to cure infectious diseases, create instant global communications, land humans on the Moon, and prevail in a long Cold War against communism. This, and more, was accomplished without bankrupting the Nation’s economy. The partnership’s record of service to the American people and the world has been remarkable.
Hybrid Threats: Reconceptualizing the Evolving Character of Modern Conflict

Frank Hoffman

America’s ongoing battles in Afghanistan and Iraq have highlighted limitations in our understanding of the complexity of modern warfare. Furthermore, our cultural prism has retarded the institutionalization of capabilities needed to prevail in stabilization and counter-insurgency missions.
From Sputnik to Minerva: Education and American National Security

Sean Kay

This paper examines how external challenges have prompted national investments in education to enhance American national security. Rather than focusing primarily on traditional professional military education, this analysis examines how education has been used as a tool of American power. Four major moments of transformation in the international system are surveyed to illustrate a link between strategic educational capacity, defined as the application of attained knowledge and skills, and national power. The study then assesses how education is used as a power asset in the contemporary security environment. Today, an important educational capacity is emerging in the new Minerva program in the Department of Defense and other transformational educational concepts with security applications. Education is gaining an increasing interest among American decisionmakers as a strategic component of American power and an essential asset for successful military operations in the new global security environment.
A 21st-century Concept of Air and Military Operations

Robbin F. Laird

The evolution of 21st-century air operations is unfolding under the impact of a new generation of fighter aircraft and a significant shift in the role of air operations in support of ground and maritime forces. So-called fifth-generation aircraft often are mistakenly viewed as simply the next iteration of airframes: fast, stealthy replacements of obsolescent legacy platforms. In fact, the capabilities of fifth-generation aircraft, and their integration into a network-centric joint force, will change the roles of manned fighter aircraft in air, ground, and maritime operations. These changes are so far-reaching that the Services face the challenge of crafting a new concept of 21st-century air operations, indeed, of all combat operations.
Unity of Effort: Key to Success in Afghanistan

Christopher J. Lamb and Martin Cinnamond

The Barack Obama administration is debating alternatives to the population-centric counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan that it unveiled in March 2009. The reevalua- tion is prompted by the recent submission of supporting civil and military campaign plans that indicate substantial additional resources are required for success. The resource issue is important, but as General Stanley McChrys- tal, USA, the new commander of U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in Afghanistan, argues, the need to pursue an “indirect” strategy that is sustain- able for the Afghans and implemented with unified purpose is more important.¹ Lack of progress in Afghanistan to date is due more to international donors and forces working at cross purposes, and unilaterally instead of with Afghans, than to insufficient resources.
Cyberspace and the “First Battle” in 21st-century War

Robert A. Miller and Daniel T. Kuehl

Wars often start well before main forces engage. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, combat often began when light cavalry units crossed the border. For most of the 20th century, the “first battle” typically involved dawn surprise attacks, usually delivered by air forces.¹ While a few of these attacks were so shattering that they essentially decided the outcome of the struggle or at least dramatically shaped its course—the Israeli air force’s attack at the opening of the June 1967 Six-Day War comes to mind—in most cases the defender had sufficient strategic space—geographic and/or temporal—to recover and eventually redress the strategic balance to emerge victorious. The opening moments of World War II for Russia and the United States provide two examples.
Radicalization by Choice: ISI and the Pakistani Army

Robert B. Oakley and Franz-Stefan Gady

The Pakistani army and the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate remain essential for the security and stability of Pakistan. Both organizations have deliberately embraced Islamic radicalism as a means to address the conventional military gap between Pakistan and India.
North Korea: Challenges, Interests, and Policy

James J. Przystup

North Korea poses two distinct but interrelated challenges. The first is external: the challenge posed by its nuclear weapons program and the threat of proliferation off the Korean Peninsula. The second is essentially but not wholly internal: the challenge posed by the pending transfer of power in Pyongyang and potential for instability as the process plays out. This complex reality underscores the need for balance and strategic patience if the twin dangers of proliferation and instability on the peninsula are to be successfully managed.
The United States and the Asia-Pacific Region: National Interests and Strategic Imperatives

James J. Przystup

Notwithstanding the 2008–2009 financial crisis, East Asia today remains the home of the world’s most dynamic economies. In 1990, the region’s share of global gross domestic prod- uct (GDP) amounted to 26.5 percent; in 2006, that figure stood at 37.5 percent. In 2006, the GDP growth rate for Asia’s economies aver- aged 5.1 percent, compared to a world average of 3.9 percent.
Managing Strategic Competition with China

Phillip C. Saunders

Officials in the Obama administration have highlighted the need for a “positive, cooperative, and comprehensive relationship” with China that can help the United States address an array of global challenges. Administration officials have not adopted the “responsible stakeholder” language that characterized recent U.S. China policy, but their overall approach appears compatible with that concept. Initial policy statements have focused on expanding U.S.-China cooperation, with particular emphasis on addressing the global economic crisis and climate change.
Ukraine Against Herself: To Be Euro-Atlantic, Eurasian, or Neutral?

Jeffrey Simon

Since independence, Ukrainians have been evenly split between those who desire to be part of the Euro-Atlantic (European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization) community and those who gravitate toward Eurasia (Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States). During the 1990s, when the European Union and NATO were focused on Central Europe and Russia was politically down and economically weak, Ukraine was able to have it both ways.
Diverging Roads: 21st-century U.S.-Thai Defense Relations

Lewis M. Stern

The 175th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce in 2008 was seized by both Thailand and the United States as a reason for celebrating a long and mutually beneficial treaty alliance. This alliance has been defined by the shared though not uncomplicated commitment to democracy and human rights, and the common interest in free and fair trade, all of which inform the tradition of bilateral cooperation.
U.S.-Cambodia Defense Relations: Defining New Possibilities

Lewis M. Stern

Cambodia’s lax border controls, widespread corruption, extremely active arms trade, and surfeit of small arms remaining from the Third Indochina War have made Phnom Penh an attractive platform for transient interests, as well as a staging ground for numerous activities that challenge the safety and well-being of the region.
U.S.-Vietnam Defense Relations: Deepening Ties, Adding Relevance

Lewis M. Stern

Normal defense relations between the United States and Vietnam emerged from discussions conducted from mid-1995 to late 1996. The first years of interaction between the American and Vietnamese defense establishments revolved around learning about one another, developing a common language, becoming accustomed to the differences in how the respective ministries managed policy and exercised authority, and learning to work with the personalities on both sides who were the mainstay of the relationship. At the outset, the Vietnamese were suspicious, conservative, and not inclined to move beyond argument about the “legacy issues,” such as the effects of Agent Orange and alleged U.S. Government support to antiregime organizations.
Burma in Strategic Perspective: Renewing Discussion of Options

Lewis M. Stern, George Thomas, and Julia A. Thompson

U.S. policy has sought to nudge the junta in Burma toward a more reasonable approach to its dilemma, either in the form of managing Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest in a semitransparent fashion, allowing the release of imprisoned prodemocracy activists and the National League for Democracy cadre, agreeing to visits from United Nations special representatives, or accepting regional advice and guidance at critical moments. But Burma is a minuet dramatizing the “one step forward, two steps backward” description of progress. Even as the administration of President Barack Obama commits itself in principle to reaching out to Burma, events conspire against another effort to coax the junta toward a reasonable, regionally acceptable solution to its hard edge.
STAR–TIDES and Starfish Networks: Supporting Stressed Populations with Distributed Talent

Linton Wells II, Walker Hardy, Vinay Gupta, and Daniel Noon

The Department of Defense increasingly is involved in postwar stabilization and reconstruction, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions, capacity-building of partner nations at home and abroad, and other such complex operations. To provide sustainable support to stressed populations in these environments, an international, networked, knowledge-sharing research project called Sustainable Technologies, Accelerated Research–Transformative Innovation for Development and Emergency Support (STAR–TIDES)¹ encourages innovative approaches to public-private collaboration, whole-of-government solutions, and transnational engagement. It leverages a distributed network of people and organizations to conduct research, support real world contingencies, and bridge gaps among disparate communities.
Lessons of Abu Ghraib: Understanding and Preventing Prisoner Abuse in Military Operations

Paul T. Bartone

The abuse of prisoners by U.S. Soldiers at Abu Ghraib had broad strategic consequences, leading many people around the world to question the legitimacy of U.S. goals and activities in Iraq. This paper draws on extensive unclassified reports from multiple investigations that followed Abu Ghraib, and applies key psychological as well as social-situational perspectives to develop a better grasp of the causative factors. From a psychological standpoint, most young adults are powerfully inclined to behave in accord with the social conventions and pressures around them. Especially in ambiguous circumstances, then, it is important that standards of behavior be clear and explicit throughout all phases of an operation and that leaders at all levels represent and reinforce those standards.
Irregular Warfare: New Challenges for Civil-Military Relations

Patrick M. Cronin

Success in the highly political and ambiguous conflicts likely to dominate the global security environment in the coming decades will require a framework that balances the relationships between civilian and military leaders and makes the most effective use of their different strengths. These challenges are expected to require better integrated, whole-of-government approaches, the cooperation of host governments and allies, and strategic patience.
So Many Zebras, So Little Time: Ecological Models and Counterinsurgency Operations

Mark D. Drapeau, Peyton C. Hurley, and Robert E. Armstrong

This paper explores how ecological and biological models can help inform the understanding of counterinsurgency operations and irregular conflict. Drawing parallels between predator-prey dynamics in nature and interactions between insurgent and counterinsurgent forces, the authors look at how ecological frameworks may provide analytical insight into complex adaptive behaviors, force relationships, and operational environments. While ecological models cannot fully explain the complexity of warfare, they can offer useful conceptual tools for analyzing insurgency dynamics, adaptation, and strategic interaction in irregular warfare environments.