Oct. 30, 2023

An Interview with Michael E. Langley

It is an honor to convey the USAFRICOM message in this publication; Joint Force Quarterly is an important forum for strategic discussion. Africa is both key strategic and geopolitical terrain due to its physical geography, wealth of resources, and fast-growing populations. These attributes make Africa an increasingly contested environment as strategic competitors, violent extremist organizations [VEOs], and transnational criminal organizations collectively seek to exploit African nations for their gain.

Oct. 30, 2023

Guardian of the Seams: U.S. Africa Command at the Intersection of Diplomacy, Development, and Defense

By its constitution, programs, and ethos, U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) is committed to the idea that knowledge should unify rather than fragment actions, concepts, and relationships. The commander of USAFRICOM, General Michael E. Langley, USMC, charged us in this article and the two that follow to explore the concept of seams and challenged us to identify and address the disparities that potentially undermine the effectiveness of U.S. engagements with African partner forces—whether these differences are interagency relationships, resources, rules and authorities, priorities, objectives, data, or something yet unidentified.

Oct. 30, 2023

Defense Diplomacy: Professionalizing the Purple to Gold Pipeline

The joint force prioritizes joint experience as a requirement for senior military leaders through joint qualification accreditation but currently has no formal requirement or incentive for interagency experience, the importance of which has been repeatedly discussed and advocated for in professional journals over the last two decades. The introduction of an interagency qualification requirement for career advancement would expand acculturation across development, diplomacy, and defense agencies.

Oct. 30, 2023

Convergence of Opportunities

Africa represents a more intense interest to the United States than is commonly recognized. The President’s national security agenda can be substantially advanced through U.S. engagement with African states. In this decisive decade, America’s desire to support and advance the open international order could lose ground to authoritarianism and repression. Assisting the economic and political development of African states represents a significant opportunity to improve the global penetration of free market democracy while frustrating the inroads of America’s illiberal competitors.

Oct. 30, 2023

Beating Drumbeat: Lessons Learned in Unified Action from the German U-Boat Offensive Against the United States, January–July 1942

In the first 7 months after the United States entered World War II, a handful of German U-boats almost brought the Allied war effort to a standstill in a shockingly effective campaign against merchant shipping. Examining this case study from a joint perspective provides timeless lessons for contemporary planners.

Oct. 30, 2023

Executive Summary

As the outline of the Joint Warfighting Concept begins to become clearer to the joint force and beyond, we hope to hear from you about how it relates to your vision of the future, AI, geopolitical issues, and more. While this world may seem increasingly complex and complicated, sharing your thoughts on how to deal with it is always of value to our nation’s leadership and your battle buddies alike. JFQ is always ready to air them out.

July 7, 2023

Mission Assurance: Decisionmaking at the Speed of Relevance

The outdated mission assurance myopia focuses on vulnerabilities related to Defense Critical Infrastructure (DCI) but neglects timely decisions that impact how we fight. The Department of Defense (DOD) is facing challenges in prioritizing and delivering constrained resources in time, space, and domain due to the inflexible nature of the existing DCI-focused MA construct. This approach overlooks key areas and stakeholders, hindering the identification of critical weaknesses affecting mission performance. The 2022 DOD Mission Assurance instruction relies on outdated off-the-shelf plans, limiting its effectiveness. To address evolving threats, DOD Global Security efforts must unite proactive approaches and enable senior leaders to make risk-informed decisions at the speed of relevance.

July 7, 2023

Alpha

Alpha is a fast-paced, brilliantly written, and ultimately disturbing book about the health of the Navy SEAL community. Using the infamous Eddie Gallagher case for its core narrative, Alpha weaves together Gallagher’s actions and the larger developments in Naval Special Warfare during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The SEALs emerge from this era as a troubled organization, full of first-rate special operators willing to take on the toughest direct-action missions but largely devoid of a higher moral code to guide their actions and dismissive of any oversight beyond that of the insular world of special operations.

July 7, 2023

America’s Great-Power Opportunity

America’s Great-Power Opportunity is a lucid, thoughtful assessment of the problems and the possibilities with the geostrategic formulation of Great Power competition (GPC). Ali Wyne frames a narrative that captures well the major debates from 2017 through 2022 surrounding whether GPC is a proper framework for understanding America’s evolving geostrategic posture and how Washington’s global strategy should respond. Wyne adds value to the prolific number of publications on GPC during 2021 and 2022 by recommending that Washington accept the new norm of competitive geopolitics with a positivist rather than a reactive strategic agenda.

July 7, 2023

Four Battlegrounds and I, Warbot

The rollout of Chat GPT-3 by OpenAI in late 2022 caused a storm of controversy. The new software created seemingly authentic and detailed answers to queries, generated passable drafts of student essays, and even managed to pass a college exam at the Wharton Business School. But some of the chatbot’s responses were also inaccurate, inappropriate, and deeply flawed. The updated version GPT-4, released in March 2023, did little to alleviate concerns about how far and how fast this technology could take us.