Enemies realize the potency of influence and will increasingly bend information to sway both friendly and hostile publics. To prevail in future conflicts, the Nation must not only be more adroit at telling its own story but also predictive about adversary inclinations and methods of using misinformation. We have progressed since 9/11, but the need remains to more fully exploit the tools of influence, especially through focused intelligence support. General Stanley McChrystal called strategic communication vital to securing the operational center of gravity in Afghanistan, which he identified as popular support. There as elsewhere, success comes through changing behavior through influence; thus, Americans must understand the environments they operate in as well as the thinking of enemies and host populations

For all it spends on wars, America has not done well fighting them since World War II. Subsequent conflicts have often amounted to “moral routs” because large segments of the country have questioned why their leaders entered them. Military professionals may see morality as a distraction, yet recognizing its relevance to the citizenry and the world is also profoundly pragmatic. Modern democracies must marshal their populations behind a banner of legitimacy. Thus, today’s professional military education and training must provide the principles and role models to buttress the Nation’s grand strategy and secure the admiration and cooperation of allies. Design methodology can help prepare the necessary “moral symmetry” to ensure meaningful victory and lasting peace.

The Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) system is an existing template if the Defense Department must move cargo through space. Even as U.S. airlift capability is furnished by military and commercial air carrier resources, spacelift capability will come from military and commercial space resources. This interdependence will be challenged to meet deployment, mobilization, and surge requirements. But if it can be pulled off, it will reduce costs and inefficiencies, create closer bonds with commercial space providers, increase agility, sustain the space industrial base, and enhance deterrence, which are all vital interests in an age of constricted funding but at the same time an age when the highest levels of government recognize the role of space in modern life.