This year marks the 66th annual Current Strategy Forum (CSF) at the Naval War College in Newport. The first CSF was held on 9 May 1949 under the title “Round Table Talks.” This event offered an opportunity for the Nation’s public servants, scholars, and senior military officers to join the College faculty and students to discuss the future strategy of the United States. Over the years, the CSF has expanded to include a cross section of America’s civilian and military leadership to encourage a wide-ranging debate on national and international security.
Since the end of the Cold War, the international community has benefited from a relatively benign and uncontested environment. The emergence of new economic powers, as well as the increased salience of non-state actors, combined with the advances in technology has spurred on a new political eco-system that has evolved into a much more competitive and potentially dangerous environment. Recent trends suggest that the international political landscape is rapidly becoming more contested and dangerous. Moreover, that landscape is considerably different than that of the past. The contested space of today includes not only the geopolitical, but has also expanded to new domains, such as the minds of a new generation, in the streets of heavily populated cities, and the infrastructure that supports a population. All aspects of national powers have been enhanced by technologies thru cyberspace providing new capacity for the U.S. as well as our potential adversaries. The implications; the United States’ ability to operate in these “spaces” to advance its agenda is being challenged at all levels and in new ways.
The 66th CSF will explore the following critical problems affecting our Nation’s future security and well-being:
- Rising Powers: past, present, future
- 21st Century Contests
- Contested Maritime Domains
- Economics and National Security
- Technology: Implications for the future?
- Roles and Missions of U.S. Naval Force
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