Thursday, April 14
6:45 – 8:00 AM: Conference Registration and Informal Reception
8:00 – 8:15 AM: Conference Welcome and Introduction
Dr. Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr., President, IFPA, and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of International Security Studies, The Fletcher School, Tufts University
8:15 – 8:45 AM: Opening Keynote Address
Senator Jack Reed, Chairman, Subcommittee on Seapower, Senate Armed Services Committee || Transcript
Introduced by Dr. Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr.
9:00 – 10:00 AM: Morning Keynote Address
General Joseph Dunford, Jr., USMC, Assistant Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps || Transcript
Introduced by Dr. Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr.
10:00 AM – 12:00 Noon
Session 1
The 21st-Century Security Setting: Identifying the Demand
The geostrategic environment has changed dramatically in the last two decades, increasing the importance of the global commons and shifting strategic focus to the urbanized, littoral regions of the world. Rising states, non-state actors, the proliferation of information technologies and precision weapons, the prevalence of hybrid tactics, the effects of globalization, and the reduction of forward-based U.S. forces all combine to create a complex and uncertain future. Given that uncertainty, it is unlikely that the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) will get its force structure 100% right. It cannot afford, however, to be too far wrong. Consequently, it must build a force that possesses the flexibility, adaptability, and versatility to meet the unique challenges each Geographic Combatant Command (GCC) will confront. This session is designed to examine regional challenges and future demand for the Marine Corps.
Issue areas for presentations:
- Identifying the most pressing regional demands and likely regional crises
- The implications of demographic and urbanization trends for littoral operations and expeditionary forces
- The impact of anti-access/area-denial weapons on forward engagement, crisis response, and power projection operations
- The challenges within the cyber domain and how they will effect forward engagement, crisis response, and power projection
- The requisite military capabilities to complement the other military services, the GCCs, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations
- Leveraging the expeditionary readiness of USMC forces optimized for crisis response to engage with an expanding set of partners and to assure access
Moderator: Dr. Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr.
Session questions and answers: Transcript
Panel members:
- Mr. Matthew Devost, President and CEO, FusionX || Transcript || Slides
- Mr. Robert Kaplan, Author, The Atlantic || Transcript
- Dr. Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr., President, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments || Transcript
- Dr. Richard H. Shultz, Jr., Professor, and Director, International Security Studies Program, The Fletcher School, Tufts University || Transcript || Slides
12:15 – 1:45 PM: Luncheon and Address
Representative Todd Akin, Chairman, Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, House Armed Services Committee || Transcript
Introduced by Dr. Jacquelyn K. Davis , Executive Vice-President, IFPA
2:00 – 3:45 PM
Session 2
Meeting the Demand: Promoting Partnerships for Engagement
This session is designed to examine the changing nature of operations and its emphasis on developing joint, interagency, allied/partner, inter-governmental and non-governmental relationships. The goal is to identify key partnerships that can facilitate access and meet the demands highlighted in the opening session. The Marine Corps has identified the need to augment partnerships with the GCCs, Services, and civilian policy-makers in order to improve responsiveness and better meet projected demand. As such, it seeks to answer questions of where and how Marine Corps units can work more closely with partners, and in support of GCC planning. If basing and access become problematic, what options exist for overcoming these constraints, and are there new operational concepts that can support GCC and Marine Corps contingency access? How can the Marine Corps better exploit civil support and engagement activities to assure access and partner support when and where needed?
Issue areas for presentations:
- Overcoming basing constraints on forward access by means of new concepts – such as the “lily pad” concept, Fleet Stations, and Alert Contingency Marine Air-Ground Task Forces – for supporting and implementing operations
- Developing alternative means to increase forward engagement, including through deployments on diverse platforms
- Building partner capacities with traditional and non-traditional partners and allies across domains and in key regional theaters
- Developing specialized, engagement capabilities to improve civil-military coordination and promote USMC regionalization, including regionalization of major headquarters, which among other benefits will improve cultural and regional knowledge/understanding
- Designing new operational concepts for littoral operations and for countering irregular threats based on the “small wars” legacy and on ideas for employing “soft” power to shape and influence decisions in partner and potential adversarial states
- Identifying areas where the Marines can have their greatest impact, especially along the littorals
Moderator: Dr. Nadia Schadlow, Senior Program Officer, Smith Richardson Foundation
Session questions and answers: Transcript
Panel members:
- Mr. Kurt Amend, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs || Transcript
- Lt Gen George J. Flynn, USMC, Commanding General,
Marine Corps Combat Development Command || Transcript - Ambassador John Herbst, Director, Center for Complex Operations, National Defense University || Transcript
- Mr. Jim Thompson, Deputy Special Representative for Global Partnerships, Global Partnership Initiative,
Office of the Secretary of State || Transcript || Slides
3:45 – 4:00 PM: Break
4:00 – 6:00 PM
Session 3
Meeting the Demand: Responding to Crisis and Applying Force
Opening session speaker: the Honorable Robert O. Work, Under Secretary of the Navy || Transcript
Introduced by Dr. Jacquelyn K. Davis
This session will address issues related to overcoming challenges to access, responding to crises, and projecting power. Panelists will consider essential Marine Corps and joint capabilities for conducting a spectrum of operations from humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to non-combatant evacuations, counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation missions, and forcible entry operations.
Issue areas for presentations:
- Developing crisis response capabilities and tailored crisis response force packages
- Expediting crisis response by sea-basing, enhancements to the Maritime Pre-positioning Force, and tethering to forward augmentation modules and forward operating sites
- Conducting amphibious operations and joint and multinational operations in permissive, uncertain, and hostile environments
- Preparing for tailored, distributed, “net-centric” operations and cyber warfare
- Constraints on forward basing and on strategic and operational lift capacity, and the impact of both on maintaining/gaining access, building partnerships, and responding to crises
Moderator: Dr. Jacquelyn K. Davis
Session questions and answers: Transcript
Panel members:
- General Philip Breedlove, USAF, Vice Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force || Transcript || Slides
- Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert, USN, Vice Chief of Naval Operations
- LTG Michael A. Vane, USA, Director, Army Capabilities Integration Center, United States Army Training and Doctrine Command || Transcript
- Mr. Francis J. "Bing" West, Author and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs
|| Transcript