A Colloquium on United States National Security Policy and Military Strategy: Understanding the Environment for Contemporary Warfare

Sponsored by the Vietnam Center and Archive and Department of Political Science at Texas Tech University and The Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College

September 15-16, 2010

The Overton Hotel and Convention Center, Lubbock, TX

The goal of this academic colloquium is to discuss what is one of the most serious and difficult problems facing those responsible for US National Security Policy and Military Strategy, that is, how best to understand contemporary warfare and how best to combat global terrorism. The current struggle is not traditional in that the enemy is not a nation-state that has mobilized its military forces and civilian population against the US, demanding assessments of the appropriate levels and uses of force and the deployment and maneuver of military force. Rather, the war against terrorist networks can be viewed as a form of insurgency where policy makers and the military face well organized but loosely connected groups bent on inflicting property, human, and economic damage at any opportunity. The complexity of fighting such enemies requires policy makers and military strategists to address several essential questions so that US policy and strategy not only match but work together in a way that will allow for the ultimate defeat of those who use terror as their principal means of goal achievement.

Call for Papers:

We seek paper and panel proposals that will address such questions and will focus on such important issues as whether US national security policy is based on an accurate conceptualization of terrorism as a threat, whether policies and strategies need to be reassessed with respect to how we are addressing these threats, and what role will coalitions and alliances play in helping political and military leaders develop and implement effective policies and strategies. We welcome and look forward to a range of proposals that examine these issues using qualitative, quantitative, and historical methodologies and analysis.

•Paper proposals: Half page proposal with short (two page) CV

•Panel proposals: Full page proposal with short (two page) CVs for speakers

Send submissions to steve.maxner@ttu.edu

For more information, please call 806-742-3742

DEADLINE for submissions: June 30, 2010

To register for this conference and/or reserve a hotel room, please visit http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/counterterrorism/