TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01 - TRADOC - U.S. Army

TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01Globalization and the proliferation of information technologies increase the opportunity forcompeting cultures to interact. In most cases, this interaction results in a mutually acceptablerelationship. In other instances, the interaction exposes irreconcilable differences and anincreased potential for conflict. As competition in the global marketplace drives U.S. and MNCsto reduce costs, they will seek to take advantage of the explosion of information and informationtechnologies. High tech jobs can be easily exported to low-cost nations with an excess educatedpopulation—India and China among others. As sensitive hardware and software developmentmoves offshore, U.S. basic functions—finance, transportation, and even defense—become targetsfor developing an “enemy within.” The volume of imported technology and the expertise neededto detect a threat challenge the Army’s ability to detect and guard against malicious code or preprogrammedfailure.More than ever, the U.S. National Security Strategy must be an interagency effort, integratingall elements of national power. Those elements will include not only our diplomatic, economic,and military capabilities, but also the power of the human dimension that motivates and executesthe details of that strategy.This chapter presents a particularly negative outlook across many aspects of the future OE.Based upon factual research the trends are indeed daunting. There may be reason for hope thatU.S. and global efforts will somehow check or even reverse these trends, but prudence dictatesconsidering the future with a wary eye. Obviously, global trends require solutions beyond themeans of nations let alone the U.S. Army, but the Army cannot ignore their impact. The nextthree chapters discuss the moral, physical, and cognitive components of the human dimension. Itis only with an understanding of the future OE, an appreciation for the components of the humandimension, and the complexity resulting from their interaction that the Army can generate thechanges necessary to prepare to man, train, equip, and employ the future Modular Force toconduct full spectrum operations.VignettePekanbaru, Sultan Sayref Qasim II International Airport, Sumatra, Indonesia, April 2020The small delegation from the UN moved slowly through the crowd of foreigners strugglingto get on a flight out of Sumatra. They had come at the invitation of Ibn Ander, self-proclaimedCaliph of the recently declared Holy Islamic Anderian Caliphate. Ander and his staff wanted toshow the delegates that the Caliphate was a noble and benign regime. In four carefullyorchestrated days of visits to model neighborhoods in Dumai, Padang, and Pekanbaru, the ninemen and four women in the delegation were almost ready to buy Ander’s line. They’d seennothing but tidy streets with busy shops and bustling crowds. Their keepers, they knew, weresteering them away from the inevitable slums they had expected, but the schools and hospitalsthey had seen were clean and functional. They remarked among themselves that it looked likeSingapore in many ways. Pekanbaru’s reputation as the cleanest city in Indonesia was noexaggeration.46