During my military career, I was fortunate enough to serve for a number of years in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Airborne Early Warning Force as both an aircrew and a staff officer, eventually serving at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Belgium. Apart from the wealth of different cultures I was exposed to as a young officer, one of the required portions of every staff action that was reviewed by head quarters leadership was a paragraph entitled “Views of Others.” At the time, the Alliance had 16 member nations and was in the process of offering direct membership in the Alliance or the Partnership for Peace Program.

This relatively small requirement on every staff paper served leadership and the Alliance well over the decades of endless issues and their staffing. I am uncertain which nation or Supreme Allied Commander Europe may have initiated the practice, but I have often wondered how much better informed U.S. leadership at all levels might have been if our system had a similar require ment. The key was the requirement to air the view, no matter how close to or far from the recommendation of the staff. On several occasions, I witnessed an Allied senior officer accepting my boss’s call on a tough issue even after heated argument where national views clashed because the decisionmaker explained how that different view was considered and why another won the day. In the end, the decision made by the senior leader and how he explained his weighing of these differ ent views improved the outcome. Over the course of a tour at SHAPE, I saw how this simple wisdom and practice made willing teammates out of officers from nations that otherwise would never have agreed to work together. I have found that same concept, seeking out the views of others, essential to forward progress of the joint force as well.

Norwegian F-16 returns to Souda Bay, Crete, after first combat mission over Libya

Norwegian Air Force (Lars Magne Hovtun)

The longer I serve as editor of Joint Force Quarterly, the more I seek out “the views of others,” and the contents of this issue are no exception. One author in particular is His Royal Highness Brigadier General Naef Bin Ahmed AlSaud of the Royal Saudi Army. The General holds a doctorate from Cam bridge University and is a 2002 graduate of the National War College. We are fortunate enough to have two articles from him on his country’s approach to cyberrelated issues, with the first of the two appearing in this edition on cybersecurity. His second article focuses on the Kingdom’s approach to social media, which is an ongoing line of discussion in all aspects of policymaking in the United States and around the world. Hopefully, both American and international readers will find these articles thoughtprovoking enough to send us their views on these and other topics that face their nations’ security forces.

JFQ is also honored to welcome a new leadership team to the Office of the Chair man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General Martin Dempsey, USA, became the 18^th Chairman on September 30, 2011, and he provides us with his initial thoughts in his inaugural From the Chairman column. Just moments after becoming Chairman, General Dempsey presided at his first official ceremony by installing Sergeant Major Bryan Battaglia, USMC, as the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General Dempsey stated that he always had a senior noncom missioned officer (NCO) showing him how to navigate the difficulties of leadership at every level of command in his career and found SgtMaj Battaglia to be exactly the right choice to continue that tradition of setting the General straight in his new job. Readers of JFQ know SgtMaj Battaglia from issue 62 and his article on today’s profes sionals in the military.

Given his significant abilities to com municate with the written word, JFQ is honored to provide SgtMaj Battaglia with space to contribute his experiences and ideas along with those of the Chairman beginning with this issue. Since the joint force is com posed of officers, NCOs, enlisted, and civil ians, I hope both of these leaders will reach an everexpanding audience through these pages. Given the challenges of completing combat overseas and addressing the changes ahead for the force, I am sure that they will always have something important to say.

The Forum has the second of a series of interviews with the Joint Chiefs. General James Amos, the 35^th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, shares his views on how the Corps relates to the joint force. Accompanying this senior leader view are three others of how jointness supports operations, training, and space capabilities. First, Rear Admiral Walt Carter, USN, former commander of the Joint Enabling Capabilities Command (now operat ing under U.S. Transportation Command), discusses one of the most successful efforts from the former U.S. Joint Forces Command. Next, with the Libyan air campaign just ended, a trio of officers with firsthand experi ence, Lieutenant Colonel Gregory James, USA, Colonel Larry Holcomb, USMC, and Colonel Chad Manske, USAF, suggest that U.S. joint planning, education, training, and exercise programs were validated by the success of Operation Odyssey Dawn. In a new twist on an established airlift operational concept, Colonel David Arnold, USAF, recommends the devel opment of a Department of Defense program for civilian space assets modeled on the Civil Reserve Air Fleet.

As we enter a new era of reduced combat commitments overseas and signifi cantly reduced financial resources for the Defense Department, the Special Feature provides three thoughtprovoking articles on the future of warfare. From Fort Leav enworth, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Fromm, USA (Ret.), Major Douglas Pryer, USA, and Major Kevin Cutright, USA, suggest that we should consider war as a moral force in order to design a more viable strategy for combat in the 21^stcentury information age. Next, Professor Dennis M. Murphy from the U.S. Army War College discusses the power of influence in future combat operations, suggesting that information operations and inf luence must become integral parts of U.S. planning and execution processes in the field. Once again showcasing some of the best thinking and writing in the joint professional military education (JPME) programs today, Major Randal Walsh of the 1^st Marine Division, a 2011 graduate of the Naval War College, suggests that the joint community needs to formalize ongoing security cooperation efforts through the establishment of a functional combatant command dedicated to that end.

In Commentary, the Honorable Ike Skelton, former U.S. Representative for Mis souri’s 4^th Congressional District who con tinues to serve the cause of JPME, discusses his views on the continuing concern of the civilmilitary gap. Next, a new arrival to the faculty of the U.S. Naval Academy, Rebecca Bill Chavez, provides an important discus sion of the militarization of law enforcement, which she believes poses significant chal lenges to the process of integrating human rights and security. In the first of a pair of articles appearing in this and the next issue of JFQ, His Royal Highness Brigadier General Naef Bin Ahmed AlSaud, who is the prin cipal officer responsible for cyber planning and policy in the Saudi Ministry of Defense, discusses his nation’s approach to cybersecu rity. In the April issue of JFQ, he will return to discuss a related but different issue of social media and networking policies that his nation has implemented. His views, which align in many ways to those of the United States, also provide a different perspective given the sweep of events in that region since the Arab Spring of last year.

In Features, three articles discuss various aspects of Asia’s security environ ment while another three discuss seapower and the levels of war, the potential application of highenergy lasers to the battlespace of the future, and the legal dimension of targeted killing. The first of the Asian security articles comes from two worldrenowned Korea experts, Dr. Kongdan Oh, of the Institute for Defense Analyses and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Dr. Ralph Hassig, of the University of Mary land University College. They take on the neverending cycle of military and political confrontation on the Peninsula by suggesting a longterm approach for South Koreans to adopt, which assumes their way of life will prevail in time. Next, from his experience at the U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies, Major Paul Oh, USA, provides an excellent assessment of the People’s Republic of China’s efforts in space from a military perspective. In one of the top essays in the 2011 Secretary of Defense National Security Essay Competition, JoAnne Wagner, the Department of State’s Deputy Director for Pakistan and a 2011 graduate of the National War College, provides an insightful answer to the question of China’s intentions in Africa.

Admiral aboard MM Etna comforts one of 300 migrants rescued from boat off Libyan coast

NATO

The second set of articles in this quar ter’s Features includes a muchneeded review of one of the last remaining areas for the Navy to explore and develop: the operational level of war. Captain Robert Rubel, USN (Ret.), Dean of Naval Warfare Studies in the Center for Naval Warfare Studies at the U.S. Naval War College, discusses an important survey of the state of operational art and science from a Navy perspective, which is sure to become a “must read” in JPME classrooms. Another recent advanced school graduate, this time from the School of Advanced Warfighting at Quantico, Major Aaron Angell, USMC, explores the dimensions of a battlespace with laser weapons that he believes are much closer to reality than we might think. Given the pace of other technological developments in recent years, the joint force would be well served if thinking through the implications and applications of these technologies is done in advance of their appearance in combat. In the final Features article, a top essay from the 2011 Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Strategic Essay Competition by Colonel Mark Maxwell, USA, a judge advocate and a 2011 graduate of the National War College, lays out the legal arguments surrounding the practice of target ing terrorists and asks whether this practice has actually made the United States safer.

This issue brings back an important section on Interagency Dialogue with another winning essay from the 2011 Chair man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Strategic Essay Competition. David Greene is a career Foreign Service Officer with the State Department and a 2011 graduate of the National War College. He argues that the U.S. role in Southeast Asia is one of power broker, not hegemon, as it shapes policy in relation to other states in the region.

As promised in the last issue, Recall provides Dr. Andrew Marble’s article, which gives a deeper understanding of the life and career of General John Shalikashvili, the 13^th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As always, we offer several outstanding book reviews, along with the joint doctrine update. Included in the joint doctrine update is an article by the Joint Staff Director of Joint Force Development (J7), Lieutenant General George Flynn, USMC, that provides the vision for his division, which is today one of the largest on the Joint Staff, encompassing many of the remaining Suffolk, Virginia–based portions of the former U.S. Joint Forces Command. Key to this vision is the effort they will be investing to achieve their mission of supporting the Chairman and the joint warfighter through joint force development in order to advance the operational effective ness of the current and future joint force. One of the main focus efforts of J7 will be seeking to improve joint education. The entire joint force will be supporting this important work.

At Joint Force Quarterly, we remain steadfastly fixed on bringing the very best in thinking and writing on topics that have impact on the entire joint force, those views of others that are so important to all of us in these times of constant change for the joint team. JFQ

—William T. Eliason, Editor