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1. Special Commentary: “Hole” of Government: What COVID-19 Reveals about American Security Planning

Author:
Isaiah Wilson III
Publication Date:
05-2020
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College
Abstract:
Almost no more need be said. This is not the traditional “monster” America prepared to destroy. But, it is the monster we face. The coronavirus, COVID-19, typifies the “compound” nature of today’s security threats. This deadly adversary is inimical to accepted international laws and conventions regarding warfare and human security protections. It is a true omnivore, respecting no borders and consuming all classes, genders, races, and faiths. This adversary has driven mass societal disruption and managed in about four months’ time to infect over 1.2 million (confirmed cases) with nearly 72,000 deaths, in the United States alone. Worldwide economic recession, even depression, seems likely and national publics now question their governments’ capacity and will to contain the adversary. Should governments fail to do so (most experts agree that the opportunity to contain COVID-19 is lost), big-data computer projections predict as many as 173,000 could die in the United States by the end of May 2020. The yet untold damage from such a toll across all sectors—political, economic, and societal—is incalculable. The potential for a global paradigm shift in the way we should perceive these threats is real. Some may ask, why speak of combatting a global pandemic as though we are waging an epochal war? This moment takes the popular fashion of war rhetoric beyond the metaphorical: We are at war against this virus…or at least we should be. We should regard this threat and its compounded implications as the security issue it is. COVID-19 is indicative of the changed nature of many of today’s threats.
Topic:
Security, Government, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
United States of America

2. Strategy, Revisited Analyzing the Shift from a Threat-Based to Capabilities-Based Approach to US Strategic Planning

Author:
Isaiah Wilson III
Publication Date:
08-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:
Making the best strategic and force choices in a free society is a difficult and lengthy process. The strategist and force planner must consider numerous international and domestic factors, including political, economic and military influences. [B]ecause planning involves preparing for the future, there is considerable uncertainty and much room for disagreement about preferred strategy and how forces should be structured, organized, and equipped. [E]qually valid arguments are often made for widely different choices, each depending on the objectives sought and the assumptions made about threats, challenges, opportunities, technological advances, and future political and economic conditions. This tendency is exacerbated by various advocates who focus on the single factor most important to them, such as the threat or budget, without a balanced attempt to explore the full dimensions of the problems.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States

3. Organizing "Virtuality": Facilitating Effective Homeland Security through DoD's JC4I System

Author:
Isaiah Wilson III
Publication Date:
08-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:
The quest for ensuring a secure, but free society in the United States continues to this day. The attacks on the American homeland on September 11, 2001 shine a particularly stark light on the issue. The attacks on the homeland have shaken America's sensibilities regarding what is and what is not proper use of the active military within the territorial boundaries of the national state. In fact, the new sensibility is that DOD must have a direct role in executing the six functions of homeland security iterated by President Bush in Executive Order 13228 – detection, preparation, prevention, protection, response, and recovery. The fledgling Office of Homeland Security (see figure 1 in appendix ) continues to struggle with the implementation of the policy. The office, empowered to 'coordinate and facilitate' rather than command and control federal, state, and local HLS efforts, has left the office and its Director, Governor Tom Ridge, hamstrung.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States

4. Today's Profits, Tomorrow's Losses: The Commercialization of US Arms Export Reform and its Implications on National and Regional Security

Author:
Isaiah Wilson III
Publication Date:
08-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:
Changes in the global arms market during the 1990s heralded a global downsizing of national military establishments, shrinkage of national defense industries, and a domestic loss of appetite for conventional weaponry in the United States. One of the many results has been the increased significance of foreign exporting. Through enhanced exporting, advanced arms producing states, namely the United States, have been able to assist their defense industry and military establishments survive the post-cold war downturn in domestic demand for conventional arms. These international level changes also led to second-order domestic efforts to reform the arms export processes within the United States.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
United States