For the past 15 years, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Strategy Essay Competition has challenged students at the senior- and intermediate-level military colleges to write about the major issues of national strategy in visionary and creative ways. The best of this writing is recognized by publication in Essays on Strategy, which is distributed to a wide reading audience throughout the national defense community. Previous editions have proved to be especially welcome to long-range planners, policy makers, and students and faculty throughout the military educational system.

This edition of Essays on Strategy addresses a characteristically broad range of subjects: Iranian nuclear strategy, no-fly-zone operations, foreign ownership of communication assets, long-range effects of the Goldwater-Nichols legislation on civilian control of the military, the growing influence of Islamists in the Middle East and North Africa, the collision of C4I technology with organizational command structures, the need for new management practices in defense depots to support 21st century operations, and defense reforms that go beyond those recommended in the Bottom-Up Review. All these subjects are of vital interest within the Department of Defense, and the fresh ideas explored in these essays should contribute to ongoing discussions in many areas.

As with past competitions, the authors represent a broad cross section of backgrounds within the Department of Defense in general and the professional military education system in particular. We would like to render a special salute to the Marine Corps University, which entered the competition for the first time this year. It not only hit the beach hard and in force but, by winning two distinguished-essay citations, also established a strong beachhead we hope will encourage those who follow.

			ERVIN J. ROKKE
			Lieutenant General, U.S. Air Force
			President, National Defense University