International_Security

ESSAY PAPER REQUIREMENT US ARMY COMMAND AND GENERAL STAFF COLLEGE CllO: Stage Setter Module 10 July 2009 1 The world is changing at a highly accelerated rate due to the effects of globalization, and these effects are changing the United States military's force structure and the way we and fight. Pulitzer Prize winning writer Thomas Friedman's view on globalization is captured in this quote. "I defme globalization as the integration of markets, finance, technology, and telecommunications in a way that is enabling each one of us to reach around the world farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper than ever before.And at the same time,is enabling the world to reach into each of us farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper than ever before." 1 The worldwide effects of globalization are impacting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We leaders and future operational planners for the United States Army have to understand the speed at which the battlefield is changing in a world that is shrinking. Globalization enables us, but also enables our enemy. I believe that Fareed Zakaria captures it best as he assesses Thomas Friedman's book The World is Flat. He agrees with Friedman that the world is flat technologically and economically. However, he disagrees with Friedman that the world is flat politically. I agree with his assessment that globalization has changed Middle Eastern markets and telecommunications in a good way, and I also agree with his assessment that Middle Eastern countries have not changed politically. Globalization has empowered countries like China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia economically, but they're regimes can still control the information and thus control the populace. Our military has changed significantly in the last decade, and I believe this is a by-product of globalization. We were slow to change from the Cold War system to a more integrated system. Military doctrine in the Cold War system called for overwhelming force to win conflicts. The globalized system calls for winning the war in cyber space. Technological advances make it easier for threats to finance, recruit, and plan. The spread of the media through the internet also can make manipulating the public easier. Huntington and Kaplan both write about the future of conflicts being centered on economics and culture. Some recent events support their theories. Sectarian clashes in Iraq after the US invasion, continued unrest from ethic Kurds in Turkey, and most recently the protests taking place in China among 2 ethnic Uyghurs claiming discrimination and prejudice by the Han majority. What Huntington and Kaplan could not see, and thus predict, was the growth of telecommunications among these third world cultures. Technology is making it easier for cultural groups to organize. Telecommunication advances are providing suppressed minority groups better access to worldwide information. Regimes like in Iran or China can maintain power when they control the information getting to their people. They can maintain control using religion and preying upon the scarcity that Kaplan talks about. What these regimes and other like them are finding out is that they can't control the flow of information like they 10 years ago or even 10 minutes ago. This is similar to what has happened in American business. Companies like Google have used the internet to empower people, and they've used this energy to change the way individuals and groups think. We've moved from a company centered or a state centered world into a people centered world. Jeff Jarvis writes in more detail about this in his book What Would Google Do' 1 Open source software, open source economies, open source cultures are making it hard to maintain control. Our military continues to adapted to this integrate communications world. We're open sourcing our combat units by sending them into the communities and homes of the people we're hoping to help. We send them in physically and with internet power. Winning the fight in cyber world continues to be one of our greatest feast and our greatest challenges as military leaders. This simply means that military leaders must be more technology savvy throughout all branches of service. Globalization will continue to change the world and our military's requirements at an accelerated rate. Economics, culture, and population growth will continue to be factors in the world's future, but globalization is the overriding issue. The US military has to win the war in the area of telecommunications. Our leaders have to work hard to stay ahead of our enemies who use the same platforms that we use. The key is that we military leaders and planners understand the speed at which globalization is changing the world. 3 CI 110 Essay Paper Requirement Outline I. Introduction. A. Thomas Friedman's Quote. B. Thesis. The world is changing at a highly accelerated rate due to the effects of globalization, and these effects are changing the United State military's force structure and the way we fight. II. Body. A. The world is flat technologically and economically, but not politically. 1. Fareed Zakaria's assessment of Friedman's writings. 2. Effects on the military. B. Huntington and Kaplan's theories and how globalization impacts them. 1. They did not have the benefit of seeing the speed of change. 2. Technology makes is easier to educate and avoid cultural clashes. C. Globalization and open sourcing. 1. Examples in business. 2. Open sourcing in the military. lll. Conclusion A. Restate thesis. Globalization will continue to change the world and our military's requirements at an accelerated rate. B. Concluding Statements. BffiLIOGRAPHY Friedman, Thomas. Luncheon Address- November 15, 2009. "National Strategies and Capabilities for a Changing World: Globalization and National Security". Reprinted with permission of the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, 2000. Huntington, Samuel, P. "The Clash of Civilizations". Foreign Affairs; Summer 1993; 72, 3; ABI/INFORM Global pg. 22. Jarvis, Jeff. What Would Coogle Do'. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2009. Kaplan, Robert D. ''The Coming of Anarchy". The Atlantic Monthly. Washington, D.C. February, 1994. Zakaria, Fareed. ''The Wealth of Yet More Nations". The New York Times. New York, NY. May, 2005. A-1 ENDNOTES 1. Thomas Friedman, Luncheon Address -November 15, 2009 (New York Times Columnist and Pulitzer Prize Winning Author). 2. Jeff Jarvis, What Would Google Do', HarperCollins Publishers, 2009. A-2