Accession Number:

AD1156584

Title:

The Operational Environment (2021-2030): Great Power Competition, Crisis and Conflict

Descriptive Note:

[Technical Report, Special Report]

Corporate Author:

U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, G2

Personal Author(s):

• ,

Report Date:

2021-04-02

Pagination or Media Count:

28

Abstract:

Two years have passed since the publication of TRADOC Pamphlet 525-92, The Operational Environment and the Changing Character of Warfare, which presented the Operational Environment OE in terms of an increasingly contested battlespace dominated by new technologies and new approaches to warfare. It highlighted the need for a multi-domain approach to a developing threat, and allowed us to examine our own assumptions about warfare, force design, and capabilities requirements. In many ways, this OE was a guidepost for the Armys historic modernization efforts that have been underway for the past several years. But the OE is not static. Dramatic discontinuities, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects, are fundamentally reshaping the OE in ways we did not foresee two years ago. The need to contain and recover from the pandemic has strained military budgets, complicated established ties between nations, as well as altered perceptions of the role of governments and the viability of the existing international order. More predictably, our key potential adversaries have embarked on their own modernization efforts designed specifically to overcome the United States. As we often are reminded, our adversaries have a vote. Focusing on the two main pacing threats, it is clear that both China and Russia are revolutionizing their approaches to warfare and have been working to create the forces they need to carry them out.

Descriptors:

Subject Categories:

• Military Operations, Strategy and Tactics

Distribution Statement:

[A, Approved For Public Release]