Author Robert Kaplan discusses his experiences while writing his book Imperial Grunts, focusing on his impressions on the identity of soldiers. He looks particularly at the representation of the working class in the field and the ways in which warfare and the military are changing today.
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Sherwood Goldberg, Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army for D.C., considers the identity and duties of the modern-day U.S. soldier, considering possible changes and incentives that can allow the Army to attract and maintain soldiers today.
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Deborah Avant, Director of the Institute for Global International Studies, discusses the move towards employing private security companies in global conflicts, examining the benefits and costs and risks this practice introduces.
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Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution discusses possible global political and military scenarios that the U.S. may need to prepare for in the future, following the fall of Saddam Hussein.
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Michael Vickers of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Association discusses the actions of U.S. Special Operations Forces in the War on Terrorism, and looks at their opponents in the war.
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According to the FPRI sites, "In the wake of 9/11, President George W. Bush announced that henceforth those states that harbored or fostered terrorism would be held as accountable as the terrorists. The translation of the war on terrorism from groups to state meant either to change a government's behavior, or, failing that, to change the government itself. Military force might overthrow a regime such as the Taliban or Saddam's Iraq but what would be put in its place? And how could the United States and its allies assure the success of the new political order? In 2005, the Foreign Policy Research Institute initiated a pair of studies that would analyze the lessons learned thus far from what the military calls Phase IV, or stabilization and reconstruction following the end of major conflict. Andrew Garfield led a British and American research team that interviewed British officers and officials for their perspectives on the efforts of their U.S. Coalition partner in Iraq. Frank G. Hoffman surveyed U.S. Marine efforts in Iraq. In this presentation, Andrew Garfield and Frank G. Hoffman present the newly completed studies, designed to aid U.S. military and civilian planners to refine a set of best practices, including a set of principles that can become a consensus, as the U.S. confronts a long and difficult struggle."
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Charles Krauthammer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary and writer of a nationally syndicated column for The Washington Post, traces the path of the United States from its rise as a world power following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to its current entanglement in the Middle East. He argues that the apparent failure of democracy in Iraq is not the fault of U.S. policy but the result of the unique history and culture of Iraq.
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In this panel, Harvey Sicherman, president of the Foreign Policy Research Institute; Andrew Garfield, deputy director of the International Policy Institute (IPI) at King's College London and senior director of Influence and Insight for the Lincoln Group; and Edward A. Turzanski, security analyst at La Salle University, discuss the report of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG), chaired by James Baker and Lee Hamilton, which was released the day before.
Robert D. Kaplan, a Foreign Policy Research Institute Senior Fellow, a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and the Class of 1960 Distinguished Visiting Professor in National Security at the U.S. Naval Academy, discusses his latest book Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground. He examines the actions of the American military worldwide, arguing that the U.S.'s preoccupation with the Middle East may lead to the rise of military power, meanwhile, in Asia.
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Don Snider of the U.S. Army War College; Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold of the U.S. Marine Corps; Peter Hegseth of Vets for Freedom; and Lt. Gen. Dennis McCarthy, Executive Director of the Reserve Officers Association, discuss several questions related to military-civilian relations: "What is the line on offering advice?," "How much can/should the military speak out?," "What are the ethical dimensions of serving both branches of government?," "What is the obligation that senior officers owe to their seniors, and to their juniors?," and "How much should officers be involved in the media?"
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