Maren Leed - Böcker

The U.S. Army is facing a time of great change. The security environment is becoming increasingly complex and uncertain, with defense challenges multiplying. At the same time, the Army is adjusting to rapidly diminishing operational demands, falling endstrength, reorganization, and tightening budgets. Given these new realities, the CSIS Harold Brown Chair in Defense Policy Studies examined the current state of the soldier/squad system and how it might be best advanced in the face of constrained budgets. The effort was conducted under the rubric of the Ground Forces Dialogue, a Brown Chair effort aimed at facilitating a broad, sustained, web-based conversation about the future of U.S. ground forces.

The third background report in the New Energy, New Geopolitics series, this report examines the dramatic increase in the production of shale gas and light tight oil in the United States and suggests possible energy scenarios and strategies could emerge from the unconventional revolution.This report pairs with the original "New Energy, New Geopolitics" report and two other background reports, all available from Rowman & Littlefield:New Energy, New Geopolitics: Balancing Stability and LeverageNew Energy, New Geopolitics: Background Report 1: Energy ImpactsNew Energy, New Geopolitics: Background Report 2: Geopolitical and National Security Impacts

In this report, the CSIS Harold Brown Chair in Defense Policy Studies analyzes the types of capabilities necessary across the range of military operations, and compares that with the characteristics of amphibious ships, as well as those in the Combat Logistics Fleet, Maritime Prepositioning Force, and others. Resulting shortfalls in key capability areas suggest some degree of risk. The study then describes how amenable those risks may be to mitigation and some of the associated implications. This report provides a framework for policymakers to understand those areas in which alternative platforms might be most useful, where risks associated with their employment are most significant, and how readily broadening platforms beyond the uses for which they were designed might be accomplished.