At this session, we presented the study, Transforming for Stabilization and Reconstruction Operations recently completed by the Center for Technology and National Security Policy at the National Defense University.

Recent military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq were characterized by the rapid defeat of the enemy’s military forces, by the relatively small size of the U.S. force, and by a very limited destruction of the civilian infrastructure. This success can be credited in large part to the ongoing transformation of the U.S. military evident in its effective use of information superiority, precision strike, and rapid maneuver on the battlefield.

U.S. forces were not nearly as well prepared to respond promptly to the lawlessness, sabotage, and attacks on coalition forces that followed. This has led to a wide-ranging debate on how to plan and organize to stabilize a country following major combat operations. Recommendations have ranged from a modest change of planning for post-conflict operations to reorganization of the total force to create a command whose primary focus is stabilization and reconstruction.

Dr. Hans Binnendijk, Director of the Center for Technology and National Security at NDU outlined the key findings and recommendations of the study to frame the debate. Major General William L. Nash, USA, (ret.) will also provide remarks.

General William L. Nash has extensive experience in peacekeeping operations, both as a military commander in Bosnia and as a civilian administrator for the United Nations in Kosovo. He served in the Army for 34 years, and is a veteran of Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. Since his retirement in 1998, Nash has been a Fellow and Visiting Lecturer at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, Director of Civil-Military Programs at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University. Nash has been the Director of the Council on Foreign Relation’s Center for Preventive Action since April 2001.