Army+KSILs

The underlying theme this year is strategic “rebalancing”—as the U.S. Army prepares to shift its focus from counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations to carrying out rebalancing initiatives, shaping the strategic environment, deterring regional aggression, improving crisis response capabilities, and completing its downsizing efforts.
 * August 2012 KSILs - Key Items of Interest**

Recommend ways that the Army can broaden its focus from counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and training of partners to shaping the strategic environment, preventing the outbreak of dangerous regional conflicts, and improving the Army’s readiness to respond in force to a range of complex contingencies worldwide.
 * FUNCTIONAL STRATEGIC ISSUES**
 * I. Landpower Employment: Evolving Roles and Missions **

Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of creating regionally focused Army units.
 * III. Strategy and Military Change in an Austere Environment**

Evaluate measures to integrate military (hard power) and nonmilitary (hard and soft power) tools to achieve strategic objectives and to avoid or resolve conflict.

//POC: Dr. Steven Metz (717) 245-3822 steven.k.metz.civ@mail.mil//
 * EVOLVING REGIONAL STRATEGIC ISSUES**

1. Assess the evolving role and organization of AFRICOM, and its receptivity within Africa. 2. Assess efforts to address the terrorism in Africa. 3. Assess lessons learned from Africa’s insurgencies and implications for Africa’s future conflicts. 4. Assess strategic implications of Chinese, Iranian, Indian, and Brazilian activity in Africa. 5. Recommend courses of action for improving maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea subregion. 6. Evaluate U.S. military roles in addressing human security issues in Africa. 7. Evaluate the effects of climate change and conflict in Africa. 8. Assess the American role in the continent of Africa with regard to energy security. 9. Assess the role of the U.S. in managing potential conflict in Nigeria.
 * II. Sub-Saharan Africa**

//POC: COL Robert J. Howell (703) 607-9127 robert.joseph.howell@mail.mi//
 * COMMAND-SPONSORED TOPICS**
 * National Guard Bureau**

1. The National Guard (NG) State Partnership Program (SPP) has distinguished itself as a highly effective security cooperation program. Identify ways to optimize the support provided by our State Partnership Program (SPP) partners for future operations. For example, when Polish units deployed to Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, they were accompanied by imbedded liaison personnel from their State Partner—Illinois. This is one example of approximately 12 partner countries that had embedded SPP Soldiers deploy with them. Is this an effective strategy and should there be a plan to initiate this process in each partnership, developing a standard requirement?

2. Members of the NG possess many civilian skill sets that could be used in Building Partnership Capacity (BPC). An example of this are the Agricultural Development Teams (ADT) formed by the NG that have proven their value in Afghanistan. What other skill sets could be used to assist the Combatant Commands and the Department of State (DoS) in their “whole of government” approach to assisting allies. (For instance, NG personnel with financial experience could assist in developing financial sector/markets, etc.) Recommend methods for capturing this information and whether it should be centralized at the National level or decentralized at the state/unit level.

5. During the Cold War, the U.S. military and its allies trained numerous linguists and foreign area officers in part to study potential adversaries and to prepare for possible deployments to various continents. This provided the U.S. military with a robust international relations capability. Due to the past 10 years of constant operational deployments, this critical capability has been diminished. Should the NG develop/enhance a program to educate foreign area specialists and linguists, and what would be the benefit?

How can AR civilian skills be leveraged to better support Geographic Combatant Command (GCC) TSC plans?
 * Army Reserves**

Can the AR best support GCC needs by aligning its units to Combatant Commands based on U.S. demographics and location? What benefits are gained by developing force structure in specific locations that could deliver critical language skills and cultural experiences for a specific AOR.

Is it viable and feasible for the AR to establish forward positioned training sets within the USSOUTHCOM AOR to support exercises? Would it be advantageous to preposition training sets tailored for this AOR? Explain how these assets could be leveraged for contingency operations. How adaptable is this model for AFRICOM and PACOM?

//POC: CDR Jeff Melody +49(0)-170-729-4435 Jeffrey.Melody@usafricom.mil// 1. Evaluate multilateral approaches for security and governance in the Maghreb and Egypt.
 * U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM)**

2. Assess the long-term implications of the Arab Spring on regional security and on AFRICOM’s strategy. What does the future picture of Northern Africa and the Sahel look like?

3. How does an increasingly resource constrained environment over the next 10-15 years impact current U.S. African regional strategy? a. What elements of national power do we apply? b. Who are the key African partners to engage with in order to develop or maintain access in support of U.S. security interests?

4. Assess the regional impact of continued instability in the East Africa region.

5. Assess the long-term impact on African security of sustenance issues in the Horn of Africa (HOA) and Maghreb regions (food and water security).

6. Assess strategic implications of women, peace, and security initiatives in Africa.

7. How do African security issues impact U.S. national security interests in the Asia-Pacific region?

8. In light of the President’s Study Directive on Mass Atrocities (PSD-10), AFRICOM must continue to refine and assess its efforts in concert with Africans, International partners, and U.S. Government (USG) agencies to give primacy to the prevention of mass atrocities. This effort must include the wide range of informational, economic, health-enabling, military, and diplomatic tools available within and outside of the USG. 1. How will the Army be able to identify and meet the professional military training requirements necessary to develop the ability of foreign partners to conduct security operations? 2. How will the Army be able to conduct tough, realistic training with foreign partners to foster the adaptability, initiative, confidence, trust, and cohesion required to conduct security operations? 3. How will the Army be able to identify partners’ specific requirements and possess the collective resources necessary to build their institutional capability and capacity for security? 4. How will the Army be able to establish formal and informal relationships with foreign partners to gain access and advance shared global security interests?
 * U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC-ARCIC)** - THE ANSWER TO ALL OF THESE IS IMET