Volume 34 Issue 2, Summer 2020 Published June 26, 2020 Air & Space Power Journal, Air University, Maxwell AFB, AL SENIOR LEADER PERSPECTIVE The AETF Today: Enabling Mission Command of Airpower Maj Gen Alex Grynkewich, USAF CMSgt Antonio J. Goldstrom, USAF The Air Force established the 9th Air Expeditionary Task Force—Levant (9th AETF-L) as a means to present forces to the joint force commander. As the operational environment in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has continued to evolve, so, too, has the AETF. While the core responsibility of articulating and integrating airpower remains central, the 9th AETF-L has also strengthened the connection between air expeditionary wings (AEW), providing combat, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), and mobility airpower and the combined joint task force (CJTF). FEATURES More Cowbell: A Case Study in System Dynamics for Information Operations Lt Col Will Atkins, USAF Lt Col Donghyung Cho, ROK MAJ Sean Yarroll, USA With an increasingly complex operating environment, joint military leaders and national security professionals are encouraged to consider, understand, and analyze the integration of information operations (IO) into operational planning. Utilizing the deployment of terminal high altitude area defense to the Korean peninsula as a case study, this article provides a better understanding of the importance of IO to operational plans. Personality and Leadership The Potential Impact to Future Strategic Thinking Lt Col Jason M. Newcomer, USAF, DBA Lt Col Daniel A. Connelly, USAF, Retired, PhD A foundational requirement for leaders to develop credibility and trust is for them to first know and understand themselves. That self-awareness allows a leader to make better sense of the world around them. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to understand better the impact and importance of personality on military officers and their ability to lead effectively. VIEWS Aiming for Squadron Success The Tailored Command Philosophy John Blumentritt, PhD Senior leaders select promising officers for squadron command and then expect them to succeed. Some of the officers they choose struggle. Some transform into poor squadron commanders. Some fail. Failure in command is unacceptable. Emerging leaders tend to bring their time-tested personal leadership philosophy with them into command. Developing and Mentoring “In Extremis” Leaders: Lessons Learned from Special Operations MAJ Chaveso “Chevy” Cook, USA MAJ Christopher Webb, USA 1st Lt Jamie Vansickle, USAF Leading in high-stress or dangerous contexts is fundamentally the same, yet qualitatively different, from leading in a vast majority of other settings. These contexts are known as in extremis, defined by Kolditz in 2007 as leading where there is physical danger or where followers believe that leader behavior will influence their well-being and outcomes mean more than success or failure. SCHRIEVER HONORABLE MENTION Addressing Counterspace Doctrine through Naval Composite Warfare Maj Mathew Beck, USAF Senior leaders have spoken at length, reinforcing the new reality that space is a congested, contested, and competitive environment. They also identified the need for US forces to organize, train, and equip to operate with the mindset that space is a war-fighting domain, and forces will find themselves in situations requiring combative action to maintain space superiority. This mindset will be required to continue providing space-enabled capabilities that our joint force, civilian population, and the world has grown reliant upon. BOOK REVIEWS Air War over North Vietnam: Operation Rolling Thunder, 1965-1968 (Cold War 1945-1991) by Stephen Emerson Reviewed by MSgt Joseph Pesantes, USAF Stephen Emerson does an outstanding job of outlining the complicated flashpoint of Vietnam that lasted for more than 30 years and culminated with the height of the Vietnam War. In 1965, the US sent 3,500 Marines ashore at Da Nang, South Vietnam, which would be the tipping point for US involvement—an involvement we tried to tiptoe around for many years. Strategic Challenges in the Baltic Sea Region: Russia, Deterrence, and Reassurance edited by Ann-Sofie Dahl Reviewed by 2nd Lt Nathaniel J. Lewis, USAF Released in the last year, Strategic Challenges in the Baltic Sea Region: Russia, Deterrence, and Reassurance, edited by Ann-Sofie Dahl, offers a recent and multiperspective analysis on the current state of security around the Baltic Sea. This work is one of a few (e.g., Borders in the Baltic Sea Region: Suturing the Ruptures, edited by Andrey Makarychev and Alexandra Yatsyk) to speak on the recent developments in Baltic Sea security since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, from increased Baltic air policing to Trumpian foreign policy. Strategy, Evolution, and War: From Apes to Artificial Intelligence by Kenneth Payne Reviewed by Capt Brian Hill, USAF Strategy, Evolution, and War is an ambitious work that outlines a broad history of strategic warfare and how it’s changed throughout human history, then uses that history to predict how artificial intelligence (AI) will change it further in the near future. Dr. Kenneth Payne, whose past work links evolutionary psychology with modern war fighting, claims that AI’s potential to make decisions based on a distinctly nonhuman psychology could change warfare more radically than anything since the development of the social human brain. Neglected Skies: The Demise of British Naval Power in the Far East, 1922-42 by Angus Britts Reviewed by 1st Lt Ashley Marty, USAF Given how much has been written on both of the world wars, it is rare to identify an entirely new angle and shed light on a subject that has truly never been detailed before. This unique freshness is what makes Angus Britts’ Neglected Skies: The Demise of British Naval Power in the Far East, 1922–1944 such a worthwhile read. Neglected Skies covers a wide period of history, as noted by the title, that takes the British Navy from the heights of its might to the point of near decay when the world needed them most to succeed. DOWNLOAD FULL EDITION
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