Security Assistance: U.S. and International Historical Perspectives

These proceedings are the fourth volume to be published in a series generated
by the Combat Studies Institute’s annual Military History Symposium, this year
sponsored by the US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). The
Annual Military History Symposiums provide a forum for the interchange of ideas
on historical topics pertinent to the current doctrinal concerns of the United States
Army. In pursuit of this goal the Combat Studies Institute brought together a diverse
group of military personnel, government historians, and civilian academicians
in a forum that promoted the exchange of ideas and information. This year’s
symposium, hosted by the Combat Studies Institute, was held 8-10 August 2006 at
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
The 2006 symposium’s theme, “Security Assistance: U.S. and International Perspectives,”
was designed to present historical research, analysis and policy recommendations
on the topic of Security Assistance and Training Indigenous Forces.
While much attention was paid to the U.S. military’s historical practice of security
assistance operations and policies, discussions of the role of other agencies of the
U.S. Government in security assistance as well as the international experience with
security assistance programs were included.
This year we were fortunate to have Lieutenant General David Petraeus address
the symposium, bringing to bear his enormous recent experience in Iraq and his
perspective as the Commanding General of the Combined Arms Center at Fort
Leavenworth. Other featured speakers included Dr. Lewis Sorely, Dr. Michael
O’Hanlon, and Dr. Andrew Krepinevich, each being leading experts in military
history and national military policy. These proceedings also contain the papers and
presentations of some two dozen participating panelists. It also includes transcriptions
of the question and answer periods following the panelists’ presentations.
These materials can also be found at
asp. The symposium program can be found at AppendixA of this volume.
These annual symposiums continue to be an important annual event for those
students and masters of military history who believe that the past has much to offer
in the analysis of contemporary military challenges. The Army continues to derive
important insights from non-military historians and thinkers. The attendees and
recipients of the proceedings have uniformly found them to be of great benefit.
We intend for the readers of this volume to find the experience equally useful.