Members of the House Armed Services terrorism, unconventional threats and capabilities subcommittee unanimously adopted the establishment of an executive agent of irregular warfare into their version of the FY-09 defense authorization bill.
While the legislative language is vague, subpanel Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) noted that whatever action the department decides to take on the executive agent authority, the Pentagon needs to ensure that approach will have an interagency aspect. "There are a lot of different people that have concerns" with irregular warfare operations, Smith said, adding an interagency approach would ensure those concerns would be heard.
As far as which organization should be granted the executive-agent authority, subcommittee member Jim Marshall (D-GA) noted that of the two likely candidates for the job - the Army or U.S. Special Operations Command - the Army would benefit the most.
Arguing that the majority of future, full-scale conflicts the United States may be involved in will likely be conducted as irregular-warfare campaigns, Marshall said the Army had better become adept in waging that kind of war. "Big Army is going to have to be able to do [irregular warfare] and do it well," he said, adding that executive-agent authority for irregular-warfare would be a step toward that goal.
More at Inside Defense to include funding of USSOCOM's unfunded mandates.
Comments
The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict and Interdependent Capabilities (ASD/SOLIC&IC) is a logical choice to be the Executive Agent (EA) for Irregular Warfare (IW) for the following reasons:
1. Provides the level of oversight required to ensure service and interagency solutions to define IW capabilities and delineate responsibilities.
2. The ASD/SOLIC&IC has oversight for strategic capabilities and force transformation and resources policy--Large scope of influence.
3. The ASD/SOLIC&IC is the principal official in charge of warfighting capabilities under the Secretary and Deputy--Authority at the highest level to advocate elements of national power.
Bottom line: level of oversight and authority of the EA for IW must have the capability to influence policy and break institutional paradigms.
Maj Phil Holmes
Student, CGSC
Ft. Leavenworth, KS
Designating USSOCOM as the Executive Agent (EA) for Irregular Warfare (IW) is not an adequate solution for institutionalizing IW capability and is premature at this time due to:
1. IW roles and responsibilities have not been sufficiently delineated within DoD.
2. It could potentially alleviate the responsibility of the Services to build requisite capabilities for IW.
2. IW is a form of warfare that spans the spectrum of conflict and requires all elements of national power to include the entirety of the Defense Department--Therefore beyond the scope of USSOCOM.
For these reasons, it appears that the Joint Staff or a directorate in OSD (say ASD/SOLIC) would be a more appropriate choice to be the EA for IW.
MAJ Owen Ray
Student, CGSC
Ft. Leavenworth, KS
As an important aside, US Joint Forces Command (not mentioned in the article) has an important dog in this fight. General Jim Mattis has directed that JFCOM's priority is IW - across the DOTMLPF board. Good news, especially from a command now led by someone who knows, and has conducted, a bit of IW..