Our nation's land forces must sustain the capacity to dominate traditional land warfare. They must assure allies and deter adversaries. They must compel enemies to change their behavior in ways favorable to the rules of the organizations they lead.

To gain widespread credibility with the joint force and policy makers regarding the strategic utility of landpower, senior Army leaders will need to develop the high level of leadership competency that ensures their bosses can make the hard decisions necessary to achieve national strategic objectives.

Good leaders learn from experience and develop personal rules over time. Strategic leaders will use the lessons they learn to improve their leadership competency, and they will share lessons they believe could help other leaders improve their competency. As military leaders advance through years of service, they become more focused on managing strategic issues for the United States.

The principal players in the application of strategic landpower are the Army, the Marine Corps, and Special Operations Command. Each is designed for a different purpose, but those purposes intersect on the land where people live and interact. Our discussion here focuses specifically on the Army. The Army is applying the strategic landpower concept across the "prevent, shape, and win" construct.

This means in the absence of a crisis, the Army will employ landpower in key areas to maintain stability, build awareness, and establish relationships that prevent or resolve conflict before it becomes a bigger problem.

Regionally aligned forces are an example of how the Army does this now. We use maneuver forces worldwide to maintain strategic balance and prevent conflict, deterring aggressors and assuring our friends. Maneuvering strategically means engaging partners with mission-tailored forces to advance shared interests and maintain a relative positional advantage over time. Once a crisis occurs, the Army will use landpower via expeditionary maneuver to restore strategic balance.

Because of the time and effort invested during pre-crisis activities among the people of a particular region, the force will be better prepared to apply landpower responsibly and effectively during decisive operations.

When conflict escalates to war, our Army will compel changes in enemy behavior through the ethical application of violence. All the Army's efforts at the tactical and operational levels should be focused on achieving the desired national strategic end state.

Strategic Landpower Task Force

The Army, Marine Corps, and U.S. Special Operations Command chartered the Strategic Landpower Task Force (SLTF) on January 28, 2013 to study the application of landpower to achieve national objectives in the future. This task force will capture the lessons of the last decade of war while simultaneously looking forward to focus on engagement and preventing conflict.

• Strategic Landpower Task Force Research Report

• Strategic Landpower Task Force Website

Call for Ideas

Reinforcing the discussion on Strategic Landpower, the U.S. Training and Doctrine Command is looking for ideas and thought pieces on this subject. The goal is to foster and expand the discussion regarding the tenants and ideas of Strategic Landpower - what it should be and how it should shape along DOTMLPF functions.

Areas for consideration include:

• Maneuvering Strategically
• Expeditionary Maneuver
• Combined Arms Maneuver
• Wide Area Security
• Special Operations
• Expeditionary Warfare
• Linkage to global and theater campaign plans

Or, topics of interest:

• Strategic Landpower Leadership Attributes for Lieutenants, Captains and Majors
• Talent Management for Strategic Landpower
• Strategic Landpower Intelligence
• Expeditionary Logistics in Strategic Landpower
• Recruiting the Next generation of America's Strategic Landpower Soldiers
• Maneuver Support for Strategic Landpower
• Mission Command of Strategic Landpower
• Aviation in Strategic Landpower
• Fires in Strategic Landpower
• Engagement in Strategic Landpower
• Exploring the Human Domain as a foundation for Strategic Landpower
• Explore the characteristics of the Human Dimension in preparing the force for future conflicts.

In order to share your ideas across the Army, TRADOC is requesting the submission of papers consisting of either a 600 - 800 word short narrative or 1600 - 2400 word article considered for publication in professional outlets.

All writings should communicate across all services, government and not be confined to Army circles. The February/March timeframe has been targeted to receive inputs. Submit entries to the TRADOC Commander's Planning Group.

This is a perfect opportunity for our future leaders to shape their future by describing how they see the application of Strategic Landpower!

Defining Strategic Landpower

Military Review: Strategic Landpower edition	White Paper	Strategic Understanding	Identity Operations for Strategic Landpower
Maneuver Support for Strategic Landpower	Institutionalizing Human Domain	Civilian Deployment and Strategic Landpower	Cyber in Strategic Landpower
Force Forward	Complex Operational Environment	Guides across Strategic Landpower	Engineers in Strategic Landpower
Strategic Landpower: The Falklands War	Army Fires Integration into Air-Sea Battle	Defining Force 2025	Strategic Landpower for the Company Commander
Strategic Landpower in the Digital Domain	Strategic Landpower in the 21st Century

You are invited to join the Strategic Landpower Forum on milBook, a Community of Army, Special Operations Command and Marines Corps professionals committed to fostering and expanding the discussion regarding Strategic Landpower. – what it should be and how it should shape along Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership and Education, Personnel and Facilities (DOTMLPF) to achieve future national military objectives.

There are currently six topic areas:

1. THE HUMAN DOMAIN: physical, cognitive, information, social, and cultural elements – a more culturally aware and attuned understanding of future operating environments.

2. MANEUVERING STRATEGICALLY: how to gain competitive advantage prior to conflict – an intellectual foundation in our soldiers and leadership for conducting more effective operations in peace and war.

3. EXPEDITIONARY MANEUVER: how the joint force conducts rapid response across ROMO – restore strategic balance.

4. TRANSITIONS: if, when, and how the joint force transitions phases / lead agency – increase responsiveness through deliberate collaboration.

5. SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES / CONVETIONAL FORCES (SOF/CF) INTERDEPENDENCE: interoperability, and integration – how combined action supports joint force’s effectiveness – institutionalizes lessons learned from the last 13 years of conflict.

6. GLOBAL LANDPOWER NETWORK: improves partnering, interoperability, access, and responsiveness – strengthens the foundation, provides the connective tissue between landpower functions, and provides options to strategic leadership.

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