Military Strategy in the 21st Century: People, Connectivity, and Competition

by Charles Dexter Cleveland, Benjamin M. Jensen, Susan Bryant

The character of not only war but also strategic competition appears to be changing. Failing to adapt will result in further losses of blood and treasure as well as prestige and influence. Power withers when it proves frail. This book by Charles Cleveland, Benjamin Jensen, Susan Bryant, and Arnel David calls for the rethinking of how the U.S. national security community approaches population-centric warfare and strategic competition in the 21st century. Strategic advantage in the 21st century will emerge from mapping human geography in a connected world, leveraging key relationships, and applying a mix of unconventional and conventional methods that put adversaries on the horns of a dilemma.

The authors outline a new approach to thinking about military art rooted in increasing connectivity and defining a new domain of competition, the human domain. In the 21st century, strategic advantage will emerge from how we engage with and understand people and access political, economic, and social networks to achieve a position of relative advantage that complements American military strength. These interactions are not reducible to the physical confines of the land domain, which tend to focus on geography and terrain features. They represent a web of networks that define power and interests in a connected world. The state that bests understands local contexts and builds a network around relationships harnessing local capacity is more likely to win the 21st century struggle for the flanks.

Military power exercised through joint combined arms is no longer sufficient to compel adversaries or control populations. Just as conventional forces like those of the United States increased their ability for precision strike and lethal fires, competitors opted to shift strategic competition away from direct confrontations to an indirect clash of wills. The weak undermine the strong through mobilizing local populations—often through predation and manipulating grievances—to carry out insurgent attacks, terrorism, civilian massacres, propaganda campaigns and cyber-attacks. The site of this clash of wills, occurring predominantly in civilian populations and their relational networks as opposed to battlefields of old, reduces the U.S. military’s comparative advantage in combined arms maneuver. As a result, military art is practiced increasingly in a human domain.

Military Strategy in the 21st Century makes the case that to be successful in these 21st century struggles, the military profession must recognize and organize for its role in these indirect conflicts and develop appropriate concepts that account for the need to gain a position of advantage in the human domain. Leading military powers like the United States must find a way to maneuver in an interconnected world of competing influence networks. America’s military needs to be part of a global security network optimized for 21st century influence campaigns backed by military force as opposed to fighting 20th century military campaigns loosely backed by information operations. This is an important volume for the military professional, academics who study political violence and security, and general reader interested in the changing character of strategy and conflict. The book would be useful in a range of classroom settings including Professional Military Education (PME), university classes on contemporary military practice and strategy, and graduate classes in security studies and international relations.

312 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 6, 2018

About the author

Charles Cleveland was born on December 3, 1802 in Salem, Massachusetts. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1827. Three years later, he came to Dickinson College as professor of Greek and Latin. On his own initiative he added history and literature to his classes. From 1830 to 1832, Cleveland also served as librarian of the College. By all reports, he was well liked by the students, but not by the college president and other faculty members. His views on the method of instruction conflicted with those of his colleagues; the tensions that arose led to his resignation in 1832. Before leaving Carlisle, however, in 1831 Cleveland married Alison Nisbet McCoskry, the granddaughter of the College’s first president, Charles Nisbet.

Cleveland then moved to the University of New York as professor of Latin. From 1834 to 1861, he was principal of a young ladies’ school in Philadelphia. He served as United States Consul at Cardiff, Wales in 1861. Cleveland was a member of the American Philosophical Society, and was active in the causes of international peace and the abolition of slavery. In 1866, he was awarded and honorary doctorate from Dickinson College. Charles Dexter Cleveland died on August 18, 1869.

Reviews

[John DeRosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could give it 3.75 stars. I have too many skeptical impressions to give it 4 stars. The authors have cited an array of literature and should be commended. I am hesitant at the aggregation of conclusions that drive the authors to assume the U.S. will be at the center of these wars. Yet, I recognize these dynamics and their applications in the future. I will re-read this and next time with a notepad.