Jeffrey L. Caton

Cyberspace may be the ultimate dual-edged sword-the bright hope of its great intellectual and communicative potential is in contrast to its dark reality to enable havoc and destruction. In April 2015, then-Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter unveiled his department's new guidance on how the U. S. military should address the myriad challenges emerging in the cyberspace domain to a group of technology-savvy leaders gathered at Stanford University. The 2015 Department of Defense (DoD) Cyber Strategy builds upon the foundation of a 2011 strategy and stays true to its three primary missions, as well as overarching national security strategies-but can the new strategy work? In this monograph, Mr. Jeffrey Caton explores various aspects of this question by examining the historical context, traditional strategy elements, subsequent DoD action, and whole-of-government approach contained within the 2015 DoD Cyber Strategy.

Several years ago, as the primary focus of U. S. military strategy shifted to the western Pacific region, many respected authorities began to question the relevance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in modern world events. More recent events, such as the Russian Federation's annexation of Crimea, have given policy makers pause to question the wisdom of anticipated force cuts in Europe. Amidst this turmoil, the staffs of U. S. European Command and U. S. Army Europe have been establishing and refining their capabilities to conduct military operations in and through the cyberspace realm. If indeed the decision is made to pursue military action in cyberspace, what capabilities are available within NATO forces to accomplish such activities? What organization, doctrine, and methods would guide operators who perform such actions? In this monograph, Mr. Jeffrey Caton explores these questions within the broader context of the continued evolution of the NATO Alliance.

Stories about unmanned vehicles now appear regularly in the national news-and not always in good ways. Within the last 2 years, privately-owned drones have crashed on the White House lawn, surveilled the U. S. Embassy in Paris, and buzzed German Chancellor Angela Merkel. When used in military operations, autonomous weapon systems (AWS) have the potential to save lives as well as apply lethal force across land, sea, and air. In this Letort Paper, Mr. Jeffrey Caton posits that the development of AWS policy and doctrine should characterize autonomy not as a discrete property of a given system, but rather as a function that varies in its strategic, operational, and tactical context and mission application. Further, he argues that AWS design, planning, and operations should be tempered with the purposeful consideration of human judgment and control as well as legal and ethical standards that foster international credibility.

To support warfighters in the 21st century, Army and joint space operations must adapt to a congested, contested, and competitive international space environment. This monograph examines how the Army is postured to meet current and future space-based support needs to conduct unified land operations. It also provides recommendations regarding how to facilitate the best evolutionary path for future Army space activities to meet the changing environment for unified land operations as well as the diverse challenges of ongoing global operations, technological advances by potential adversaries, increased international competition, and domestic resource constraints. The monograph posits that the Army should retain its current focus on space operations as cross-domain support for terrestrial warfighter operations. It also suggests that the development of such support should include stakeholder and proponency issues with regard to cyberspace operations.

With growing international awareness of energy security challenges, the promise of space-based solar power for clean and unlimited energy for all humankind is certainly appealing. While significant progress continues in the enabling technologies of such systems, is there compelling evidence that space-based solar power systems will provide the best energy solution? How does the Army's current approach to incorporating a diverse portfolio of renewable energy sources in distributed locations compare with the potential of enterprise ventures that beam energy from solar collectors in space? For more than 4 decades, many credible organizations in government and industry have explored the concept of space-based solar power. But their serious studies often conclude that such systems remain on the future horizon, usually at least 10 years away from practical application.

Military cyberspace operations have been ongoing since before the advent of the Internet, and their influence on traditional military operations continues to increase. What are the significant changes in mission and structure of Department of Defense offensive and defensive cyberspace activities over the past decade? How do joint and Army cyberspace military operations fit into the complex and dynamic sphere of daily network defense as well as international deterrence and escalation?

Currently, there is no internationally accepted definition of when hostile actions in cyberspace are recognized as attacks, let alone acts of war. The goal of this monograph is to provide senior policymakers, decisionmakers, military leaders, and their respective staffs with essential background on this topic as well as to introduce an analytical framework for them to utilize according to their needs. The examination canvasses existing decisionmaking policies, structures, and influences to provide a holistic context for the assessment that extends beyond limits of the legal and technical communities. Its approach focuses on the synthesis and integration of material from existing experts, deferring the detailed analysis to the many published studies.