The United States is full of top-tier universities, innovative companies, and world-class think tanks. We have to allow our people to get smarter by interfacing with those outside of the traditional military if we want to leverage a “whole-of-society” response to the GPC. The Bureau of Naval Personnel must greatly expand programs like the Career Intermission Program and initiate additional, targeted on-ramp, off-ramp (OR-OR) programs. Attempts at flexible detailing like CIP are admirable, but their limited scope and the institutional discomfort towards those who utilize the program make these attempts unattractive to promising officers and enlisted. Even still, accessing CIP requires a 12-month lead time, during which many participants must defer upcoming promotions, and receive “non-observed” Fitness Reports (FITREPS) that blemish their record in future promotion boards. The Navy has developed some of these systems the Career Intermission Program (CIP) was designed for just this purpose. GPC requires that the military think of creative ways to utilize its most important assets: its people. These systems could allow members to transfer to the private sector and academia, gain expertise in strategic thought, entrepreneurial decision making, and rigorous threat analysis, and then return to service with limited impact on their upward career mobility. Instead, we must optimize our manpower and personnel systems for easy off-ramps and on-ramps between service and civilian life. But to match a determined competitor like China, the USN needs to leverage its unique assets we cannot hope to compete strictly on tactical prowess. In many cases, the right training can simply be the tactics, techniques, and procedures that a crew needs to be successful onstation. From the training scenarios for deploying crews, to basing, force posture, and partner nation agreements, the requirement is clear: to counter China and Russia, the Navy will need the right training, the right tools, the right partners, and above all else, the right people. The renewed focus on the GPC is informing the decisions of all US Navy (USN) leaders. GPC necessitates a “whole-of-society” or “whole-of-government” response similar to the Cold War. The threats from these two countries represent a massive paradigm shift to which the U.S. Russia is newly belligerent with its neighbors and is using cyber warfare to antagonize the United States and its allies. ![]() China is rapidly modernizing its military and militarizing the South China Sea. This tendency towards competition has only increased. ![]() ![]() By adapting the models of American private sector and small startup teams like those found in Silicon Valley, the United States Navy can better prepare to meet the unique whole-of-government challenges that renewed Great Power Competition poses. Our success hinges on the modernization of our personnel, billeting, and manpower systems. ![]() Instead, our competitive advantage lies in unleashing the potential of our people. In this article we argue that in order to pace the threats posed by Great Power Competition (GPC), America’s best weapon is not newer technology and innovative weapons. After 19 years of war in the Middle East and a concentrated effort on the counterterror (CT) and counterinsurgency (COIN) mission, the United States has finally completed its so-called “Pivot to the Pacific.” Washington’s gaze is, finally, fixed squarely on China and Russia.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |