Winning the War by Winning the Peace: Strategy for Conflict and Post-Conflict in the 21st Century

The conference theme for year 2004 was Winning the War by Winning the Peace: Strategy for Conflict and Post-Conflict in the 21st Century. Informed by the Korean, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf wars fought by the United States and its allies during the last half of the 20th century -- wars in which, despite the qualitative superiority of our forces, the outcomes proved to be less than satisfactory -- the conference theme for 2004 entailed a deep probe into the question of how can the West, in this new century of omnipresent terrorism, capitalize on its superior military and economic might to achieve a satisfying and enduring modus vivendi. The search for answers to this central question was lent added relevance and urgency by the fact that the allied anti-insurgency wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were transpiring even as the conference proceeded. The Strategic Studies Institute provides this summary of the 2004 conference presentations along with a distillation of conference findings and conclusions. The conference included the following panels: Panel I: American Grand Strategy in the Global War on Terrorism; Panel II: Fiscal and Political Sustainability; Panel III: Insurgency and Terrorism; Panel IV: Peacekeeping, Nation-Building, and Stabilization; Panel V: Democratization; and Panel VI: Implications for Military Capabilities and Force Structure. Presented at the Annual Strategy Conference (15th) held in Carlisle Barracks, PA, on 13-15 Apr 2004. ISBN No. 1-58487-182-2.