Army Executive Irregular Warfare Conference Charts Army's Path - Janice Burton, Special Warfare.

“ Are we all going to become like Special Forces, or is Special Forces going to become like the rest of the Army? I hope not. Special Forces push the envelope. I do believe we need a center of excellence for IW. If it’s not here (Fort Bragg), I don’t know where it could be. We need someone to continue to think about the challenge of IW and to continue to push the envelope not only for the Army, but for the rest of the U.S.”

The Army made a first step toward the establishment of a whole-of-government approach to ongoing military operations around the world as the JFK Special Warfare Center and School hosted the U.S. Army Executive Irregular Warfare Conference Aug. 10-14 at Fort Bragg, N.C. The conference brought together both conventional and special-operations forces, members of the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development and members of academia.

Lieutenant General John Mulholland, commander of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command and the host of the conference, noted that the conference brought together “luminaries and experts” in the IW field to work to put together a way ahead. Top military leaders in attendance were General George Casey, chief of staff of the Army; General James Mattis, commander of the Joint Forces Command; General Martin E. Dempsey, commanding general of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command; and Admiral Eric Olson, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command. Civilian experts in attendance included Robert Kaplan, Dr. John Nagl and Ralph Peters...

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