Report - "Improving Strategic Competence"

RAND Corporation has released a new report entitled Improving Strategic Competence: Lessons from 13 Years of War. The report was released in October 2014 and has several well-known authors - Linda Robinson, Paul D. Miller, John Gordon IV, Jeffrey Decker, Michael Schwille, and Raphael S. Cohen. There are 170 pages in the document (Adobe Acrobat PDF). The report ". . . addresses a particular disconnect in the current debate on the future of national security strategy and the role of land-power caused by an inadequate examination of the national level of strategy made by the U.S. government".

The report has identified two trends from World War II to the Present -

1) "Land warfare has evolved from conventional combat against state actors and their standing forces to an increasing incidence of irregular warfare fought by joint forces against non-state actors. This has led to an increasing U.S. reliance on special operations forces".
2) "While the Army learns tactical and operational lessons from the wars it fights, it sometimes struggles to recognize the broader implications of its experience and adapt at a strategic level".

The report goes on to list "Seven Lessons from the Past 13 Years of War" and provides seven "Recommendations". You can read more about the report here and download it if interested.
www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR816.html