72 Parameters
Growing Strategic Leaders
for Future Conict
BARAK A. SALMONI, JESSICA HART,
RENNY McPHERSON, and AIDAN KIRBY WINN
© 2010 Barak A. Salmoni, Jessica Hart, Renny McPherson, and Aidan Kirby Winn
G
lobal operations since 2001 highlight certain characteristics of the US
military’s emerging operating environment. Future operations will like-
ly take place “amongst the people” in a wide range of unpredictable envi-
ronments.
1
Managing these conicts will require extensive collaboration
between military and civilian agencies representing a range of governments,
intergovernmental organizations, and nongovernmental organizations. Like-
wise, general-purpose forces (GPF) will make larger contributions to tasks
previously reserved to special-operations forces (SOF). These two compo-
nents will experience greater intermixing and burden sharing.
2
In ongoing operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, effec-
tive senior leaders are those able to grapple successfully with the dynamic
emerging environment and its functional implications. Along the way, lead-
ers have developed important insight regarding the characteristics of success-
ful commanders and the measures required to ensure future leaders possess
these characteristics. As the Department of Defense seeks to develop a cadre
of senior joint force leaders for operational and strategic command in “multi-
modal conicts,” these views are worthy of serious consideration.
3
To illuminate and begin to codify attitudes toward strategic-level
leadership development, the authors selected a group of SOF and GPF lead-
ers who have commanded at the colonel or Navy captain level and higher in
recent irregular and hybrid warfare environments.
4
In extensive interviews,
they reected on the characteristics required for effective senior-level leader-
ship and provided recommendations for leader development. Their respons-
es highlighted the characteristics, educational experiences, and assignments
this cohort considered relevant to success in the unpredictable operating en-
vironments of today and tomorrow.
Dr. Barak A. Salmoni is a political scientist, Jessica Hart is a research assistant,
Renny McPherson is an adjunct staff member and former project associate, and Aidan
Kirby Winn is a project associate, all at the RAND Corporation.
