United States Naval War College
Newport, Rhode Island
June 8 - 9 2010
This year marks the 61st annual Current Strategy Forum at the Naval War College
in Newport. The first was held on 9 May 1949 under the title “Round Table Talks,”
and offered an opportunity for the nation’s public servants, scholars, and senior
military officers to join the College faculty and students to discuss the future
strategy of the United States. Over time this forum has expanded to include a cross
section of America’s civilian leadership to encourage a wide-ranging debate on national
and international security. Each year the Secretary of the Navy hosts the Current
Strategy Forum to provide an opportunity for an exchange of views among outstanding
scholars and leaders from across industry, government and the military.
This year’s forum will explore the global system in transition. As Anne Marie Slaughter,
the State Department’s Director for Policy Planning, observed at last year’s event,
international affairs are now less hierarchical, and less susceptible to solution
by traditional policy mechanisms. Globalization has brought about an environment
in which events can more rapidly transform the international system. Formal alliances
and agreements often take too long to negotiate, or are less effective and adaptive
compared to more “networked” approaches to global problems or immediate crises.
Hierarchical or flat, the system still requires leadership to establish the goals
and to develop relevant solutions. This provides a clear opportunity for the United
States to exercise strategic leadership, but one entailing a very different approach
than pursued in the past. The Maritime Strategy, in part, seeks to take advantage
of this logic. The maritime services have set out to advance the collective interests
among relevant states, without which meaningful solutions to emergent issues are
not possible. Networks and partnerships can help advance the goal of a more stable
global system. Understanding of the art and means of doing so will be among America’s
key challenges in the years ahead.
Purpose
The 61st Current Strategy Forum will explore the following issues:
- United States foreign policy in the emerging global order.
- The "strategic leadership" opportunities for the United
States.
- The role of the maritime services in supporting the nation's
key objectives.