The Hunt for Strategic September

Caterpiller drives not included. With our penchant for overly dramatic titles, we presented “The Hunt for Strategic September” from 22 September 2013 through the end of the month. Washington was awash in strategic planning. The Strategic Choices Management Review (SCMR) was more or less wrapped up by August, but hearings on Capitol Hill continued through this month. The DoD was also spinning up the teams that will hammer out the latest Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) for issuance next year. Elsewhere the long-awaited Cooperative Seapower for the 21st Century update (revision? re-write?) was expected shortly (yet its release has been pushed back previously).

We asked writers to present their national views on strategy broadly and the QDR narrowly, including the following prompts: What’s the point of the QDR, its history, and its relation to other strategic reviews such as the National Security Strategy (NSS) and Defense Strategic Guidance (DSG)? Have past QDRs effected any change? How is this QDR cycle different? Is the cycle broken? Does the U.S. even need a QDR? Has the SCMR altered this calculus? More importantly, what should be in the QDR? What shouldn’t be in the QDR? What “sacred cows” can/should be slain in this or other strategic guidance? What about the Seapower 21 update?

What lessons can be learned from Australia’s White Papers? Britain does a 5-yearly Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), next slated for 2015. Do these and others serve a similar purpose? Would a prospective naval power that doesn’t have such a product or process benefit by one? Are there disconnects between the maritime components of the U.S. QDR and the strategic documents of its international commitments (NATO, UN, etc..)?

Background Reading on the Context and Issues:
It’s Time to Think About Strategy by Frank Hoffman
On Stockdale and Strategy by Matthew McLaughlin
Budget-Driven National Defense Strategy by Dick Mosier
Burning of the Inanities by CDR Salamander

New Ideas / Sacred Cows / Issues to Examine:
The Nucleus Crew Concept by Steve Wills

International Perspectives:
Polish Strategic Guidance by Viribus Unitis
Post-Election German Security Strategy by Felix Seidler
The 2014 QDR and Europe by Matteo Quattrocchi
Cast Adrift: Canada’s Maritime Strategy by Paul Pryce

Historical Perspectives:
The Road to the QDR, Part 1 by Scott Cheney-Peters

Fostering the Discussion on Securing the Seas.