True Meaning of Balance

<p>Second Place Winner of the MacArthur Military Leadership Writing Competition for the CGSC Class 2009-01. As U.S. Army forces are asked to accomplish increasingly diverse and complicated missions as part of full spectrum operations leaders are challenged to provide forces that are trained and ready to execute those missions. Short deployment timelines mission complexity and eroding institutional knowledge all exacerbate the problem. Leaders are growing up in a single-minded environment where counterinsurgency is the name of the game and core war fighting competencies are slowly eroding. Are we falling into the age old trap of fighting the last war at the expense of being ready for the next one or in this case fighting the current war at the expense of the next one? The Army of tomorrow demands adaptive leaders that can balance all aspects of full spectrum operations while maintaining mastery of traditional combat core competencies. In other words Army leaders must find a way to be the jack-of-all-trades and master of all not the masters of none. By focusing on the following five key areas leaders can achieve full spectrum operational success without sweeping changes in force structure troop strength or doctrine. These five areas are: focusing on core competencies outsourcing to coalition partners and NGOs improving indoctrination of junior leaders leveraging combined arms training to its full capacity and maximizing existing policies and doctrine to achieve full spectrum operational balance.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>