Boy, this is a long one and this will take you a little bit to read through all the speeches and various articles. But hey, if you are a student of strategy and are wanting to take a look into the future of defense contracting, you have to figure out what the big boys are thinking and wanting to do.
What is interesting about ‘Smart Power’, is that it is a concept that gained it’s start as a political buzz word to differentiate one party’s views on foreign policy versus another’s. Which is standard play in the world of politics. Although I would argue that every administration no matter what party, all strive to use smart power in their foreign policy strategies. But hey, I will let the political pundits play that game–I have more important things to talk about.
With that said, with a new administration comes newly minted foreign policy goals. Smart power is the flag pole that they are rallying around and that is what we all must focus on in order to stay current.
There are a number of places to research the definition and origins of the concept of smart power. For this post, I wanted to stick with Matt Armstrong’s definition of smart power because his pays respect to the original strategists who promoted such concepts back in their day. He built a ‘snow mobile’ out of it, and brought in Sun Tzu and Clausewitz to create four pieces to the definition.(see below)
Now that we have perspective and reference for smart power, my intention in this post was to highlight what the defense industry thinks about smart power. Just look at the latest moves of Cerberus, and you will see how important this smart power concept is. DynCorp, along with other defense companies involved with contracting, are all trying to adapt to the goals of a new administration and their ‘smart power’ focus, and investors are taking notice. So what does all this mean for security contractors like you and me?
Training, training, and more training is going to be the wave of the smart power future. In order to stop a state from failing, you need to get into nation building, and the defense industry is jumping all over that. From training police and military forces to propping up government institutions, the defense industry is all about training and mentoring. Expect to see more contracts in really bad places in the world, all with a focus on strengthening the recognized government and stabilizing that country. Those are the places that need expertise and all the help we can give them, and private industry will answer that call.
We also can provide other necessities of the state. We can build defenses, enforce borders, build government facilities, create ‘Green Zones’, guard dignitaries or investors (commerce is vital to failed states as well), build infrastructure and provide the necessary support to the U.S. military and federal government as they go around the world and implement ‘smart power’. We are the SysAdmin and the ‘hold and build’ portion of today’s strategies. Security contractors are essential for all of that, whether a local national guard or it being an expat guard. Someone has to protect these folks as they rebuild a crumbling state.
Smart power is very friendly to private industry in another way. Using military for everything when it comes to nation building, is not smart. If we want to put a civilian face to our diplomacy, as opposed to a menacing military face, then smart power requirements will need civilians. Of course there will be federal employees providing that civilian face, but that only goes so far, and federal response is no where near as fast as private industry response. In other words, private industry equals speed, flexibility and scalability. In a fast paced and highly dangerous world, private military companies with nation building capabilities and built in security mechanisms will be necessary to implement smart power strategies. Just look at today’s wars and projects throughout the world, and tell me private industry doesn’t have a role in that process? (might I note that contracting has only increased under the current admin–too bad we get zero recognition for our contribution to smart power)
Interesting stuff, and let me know what you think. –Matt
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Smart Power is “the capacity of an actor to combine elements of hard power and soft power in ways that are mutually reinforcing such that the actor’s purposes are advanced effectively and efficiently.” Those familiar with Sun Tzu and Clausewitz will recognize the four elements of Smart Power:
• The target over which one seeks to exercise power—its internal nature and its broader global context. Power cannot be smart if those who wield it are ignorant of these attributes of the target populations and regions.
• Self-knowledge and understanding of one’s own goals and capacities. Smart power requires the wielder to know what his or her country or community seeks, as well as its will and capacity to achieve its goals.
• The broader regional and global context within which the action will be conducted.
• The tools to be employed, as well as how and when to deploy them individually and in combination.
From the Mountain Runner blog.
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What’s “Smart Power”? DynCorp’s Tony Smeraglinolo on six best practices
April 12th, 2010
by JD Kathuria
“Smart power” — ever since Defense Secretary Robert Gates outlined the policy in a 2008 speech, it’s become the emerging tenet for how the United States should approach global security initiatives. Through a mix of military strength and nation-building activities, the aim is to keep “fractured or failed states,” as Gates put it, from teetering on the brink of war — or from requiring the US military, already stretched thin in Iraq or Afghanistan, from having to intervene further.
The urgency for smart power has only grown with the Obama administration’s call for $39.4 billion in funding for civilian foreign operations in fiscal 2011. Now comes the hard part: Determining how smart power can be implemented effectively to address global challenges.
Tony Smeraglinolo is working to cut through that uncertainty. As president of Global Stabilization and Development Solutions for DynCorp International, Smeraglinolo offers up this succinct definition: Smart power requires the application of three D’s — Defense, Diplomacy, and Development. Since assuming his role in April 2009, Smeraglinolo has helped structure his division at DynCorp to provide all three core competencies.
