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General Phil Breedlove

  • 11/05/2018
  • 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
  • Capital City Club

Registration


Registration closes at 10am on Wednesday, October 31.

Registration is closed.

ACIR is honored to host retired General Phil Breedlove who will speak on the topic, "21st Century Warfare."

It can be said that many factors have combined to make warfare in the 21st Century different from war in previous centuries. Certainly age-old "kinetic" means -- from sticks and stones to nuclear weapons -- are still available for use. However, in many ways, modern warfare differs from what many of us observed in the 20th Century.

Technological developments have made for more rapid, efficient, and effective communication on the battlefield. They also have brought the battlefield to the living room. The global media, the Internet, and social media often add instantly to our awareness of conflicts around the globe, while "fake news" complicates our ability to understand. Drones, operated far from the battlefield, are replacing aircraft as a means of reconnaissance and attack. While precision weaponry, arguably, has reduced collateral damage and non-combatant deaths, the battlefield itself has become less opaque and thus a more deadly place. It is harder to hide and death comes from nowhere.

Moreover, a new lexicon is upon us. Such terms as hybrid warfare, gray zone strategies, active measures, and cyber warfare define a broad range of subversive instruments, many of which are non-military, yet designed to influence political, as well as military outcomes. Information operations and the use of cyber technologies have become critical to success, both on the battlefield, in the halls of government, and in the minds of each of us. 

Perhaps equally as troubling, if not more so, more of the new technologies are available to non-state actors and terrorists. Come listen to former Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, General Philip Breedlove, discuss what the United States now confronts as it attempts to secure the nation and its people.

General Breedlove joined the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Tech Institute of Technology after retiring as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and the U.S. European Command Commander.  In these capacities he commanded all U.S. and Allied troops in Afghanistan, Kosovo as well as all NATO operations across Europe and the Mediterranean.  As a Distinguished Professor, a title he shared with Sam Nunn, he works with faculty, staff and students on security issues and policy.  Further, he facilitates a number of projects, classes and presentations to advance these same thoughts.  General Breedlove brings a wealth of deep and recent experience in our world's toughest security and policy issues as well as leadership in situations spanning both peace and conflict.