Soldier-Leaders in the Age of AI: The Future of Pre-Commissioning Education

Major General Bob Scales, U.S. Army (Retired), Ph.D.

Dr. Robert Scales served over thirty years in the Army, retiring as a Major General. Immediately after retirement from military service, he was appointed president and CEO of Walden University, one of the world’s largest private universities. More recently, he retired as CEO of Colgen Inc., a defense consultancy specializing in strategic leadership. He commanded two units in Vietnam, winning the Silver Star for action during the battles around Dong Ap Bia (Hamburger Hill) during the summer of 1969. Subsequently, he served in command and staff positions in the United States, Germany, Korea, and ended his military career as Commandant of the United States Army War College. In 1995 he created the Army After Next Program, which was the Army’s first attempt to build a strategic game and operational concept for future land warfare.

He has written and lectured on warfare and military history to academic, government, military, and business groups all over the world. He is the author of two books on military history: Certain Victory, the official account of the Army in the Gulf War and Firepower in Limited War, a history of the evolution of firepower doctrine since the end of the Korean War. In addition he is an authority on contemporary and future warfare. He has written three books on the theory of warfare: Future Warfare, a strategic anthology on America’s wars to come, Yellow Smoke: the Future of Land Warfare for America’s Military, and, most recently, Scales on War: the Future of America’s Military at Risk. He was the only serving officer to have written books subsequently selected for inclusion in the official reading lists of three services; Certain Victory for the Army, Firepower for the Marine Corps and Yellow Smoke for the Navy. Congressman Ike Skelton, former Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has included Yellow Smoke in his National Security Book List sponsored by National Defense University. The New York Times, Atlantic and Foreign Affairs have reviewed his work, The Iraq War: a Military History, written with Williamson Murray very favorably. His work, U S Policy in Iraq and Afghanistan, published in 2012 and edited with Dr. Seyom Brown, anticipates today’s headlines with remarkable prescience.

He is a frequent consultant with the senior leadership of every service in the Department of Defense as well as Congress and many allied militaries. He has testified fifteen times before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees as well as the Foreign Relations and Environment and Public Works Committees of the Senate. He was honored to be the twentieth Nimitz Memorial Lecturer in 2004. In 2010 he was appointed as a member of the Congressional Quadrennial Defense Review.

He is an Adjunct Scholar with the Modern Military Institute at West Point. He has been senior military analyst for The BBC, National Public Radio, MSNBC and Fox News Network. He has written for and been frequently quoted in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The New York Post, The New York Daily News, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, Time Magazine, National Review, National Interest, The Atlantic, Newsweek, Roll Call among many others. Scales latest work, Scales on War: America’s Military at Risk is a template for Secretary Mattis’ Close Combat Lethality Task Force.

The CCLTF is a DoD wide initiative to reform America’s Close Combat ground forces. Secretary Mattis has appointed Dr. Scales Chairman of the Advisory Board for this effort. He wears the Army’s Ranger Tab and Senior Parachutist’s Badge. He is a graduate of West Point and earned his PhD in history from Duke University.

CW3 Jerry Leverich,
U.S. Army (Retired)

“The Future Operational Environment”

Jerry Leverich assumed his current duties as the Director of Fusion & Assessments Directorate for the G2 (Intelligence) of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) in March 2019. He has served in multiple intelligence positions within the G2 following his retirement as a Chief Warrant Officer 3 (CW3) from the Army in February 2005. In his current capacity, he is responsible for providing intelligence and operational environment advice and considerations to a wide variety of analytic products for the TRADOC G-2 focused on defining the future operational environment. The directorate provides TRADOC and the Army with multi-disciplined intelligence assessments, briefings and reports required to facilitate training, leadership development, material acquisition and doctrine/concept development for the future U.S. Army.  Because of his extensive threat background, Leverich also served as a core member of the Army’s Russia New Generation Warfare study team.

A career intelligence officer, CW3 Leverich retired as a senior all-source intelligence warrant officer after over 22 years on active duty. He served in a wide variety of intelligence assignments culminating as the senior intelligence warrant officer to the US Army Pacific (USARPAC), G2 from 2002 to 2005.

During his military career, Leverich held key intelligence assignments from battalion to Corps; at the operational, joint and strategic level including assignments at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon and among many embassies in Latin America. His overseas assignments include Korea, Germany and Hawaii. He served in Operations, Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Uphold Democracy, as part of US Army, Europe (FWD) in Taszar, Hungary, he supported the Implementation Force (IFOR) and Stability Force (SFOR) in Bosnia Herzegovina, and supported Operation Enduring Freedom -Philippines (OEF-P).   

Leverich graduated from Excelsior University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts. He earned a Master of Science from Redlands University in 2009. He is a graduate of the Advanced Course at the Army Management Staff College, and has received a Strategic Leadership post graduate certificate from the Darden Business School executive program at the University of Virginia. He is a mentor and graduate of TRADOC’s Senior Leader Development Program.

Paul Scharre,

Senior Fellow and Director of the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security

The Artificial Intelligence Revolution

Paul Scharre is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. He is the award-winning author of Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War, which won the 2019 Colby Award and was named one of Bill Gates’ top five books of 2018.

From 2008-2013, Mr. Scharre worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) where he played a leading role in establishing policies on unmanned and autonomous systems and emerging weapons technologies. Mr. Scharre led the DoD working group that drafted DoD Directive 3000.09, establishing the Department’s policies on autonomy in weapon systems. Mr. Scharre also led DoD efforts to establish policies on intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) programs and directed energy technologies. Mr. Scharre was involved in the drafting of policy guidance in the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance, 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, and Secretary-level planning guidance. His most recent position was Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

Prior to joining OSD, Mr. Scharre served as a special operations reconnaissance team leader in the Army’s 3rd Ranger Battalion and completed multiple tours to Iraq and Afghanistan. He is a graduate of the Army’s Airborne, Ranger, and Sniper Schools and Honor Graduate of the 75th Ranger Regiment’s Ranger Indoctrination Program.

Mr. Scharre has published articles in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, TIME, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, Politico, and The National Interest, and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR, and the BBC. He has testified before the House and Senate Armed Services Committees and has presented at the United Nations, NATO, the Pentagon, the CIA, and other national security venues. Mr. Scharre is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds an M.A. in Political Economy and Public Policy and a B.S. in Physics, cum laude, both from Washington University in St. Louis.

Colonel Candice Frost, 
Director, Foreign Intelligence, U.S. Army Deputy Chief of Staff, G2 Intelligence

Colonel Candice E. Frost is the Director of Foreign Intelligence for the Army G-2 within the Headquarters, Department of the Army where she provides current and estimative intelligence to the Secretariat and the Army Staff and projects the Future Strategic Environment to the Secretary of the Army, Chief of Staff of the Army, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, Army G-2, and Army Acquisition Executive. As the Director of Foreign Intelligence, Colonel Frost advises and provides foreign technical threat intelligence assessments in support of Army acquisition programs, science and technology efforts, and research and development programs.

Colonel Frost received her commission from the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY branching into Military Intelligence with the United States Army. Within the Army she has served at all levels of Military Intelligence from tactical, operational, to strategic levels of both analysis and command. Most recently, after her Battalion Command, she completed a War College Fellowship at the Central Intelligence Agency. Colonel Frost’s deployment experience includes Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan (2011), Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan (2005), and Stabilization Force XI, Bosnia (2002).

Colonel Frost’s military and civilian education are Airborne School, Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course, Military Intelligence Advanced Course, Combined Arms and Staff School, Signals Intelligence Tactical Operations Officer Course, Command and General Staff College, School of Advanced Military Studies, and the Senior Service College (Fellowship) Central Intelligence Agency. Colonel Frost holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Science from the United States Military Academy, a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Central Michigan University, and a Master’s in Military Arts and Science from the School of Advanced Military Studies. She is an adjunct professor for the University of Arizona.

Colonel Frost’s awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, Distinguished Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (5 Oak Leaf Clusters), Army Commendation Medal (2 Oak Leaf Clusters), Army Achievement Medal, Meritorious Unit Citation, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terror Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terror Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon (Numeral 5), National Defense Service Medal (2), Combat Action Badge, and the Parachute Badge. She hails from Muscatine, Iowa and now lives in Washington D.C.

Major General Charles (Charlie) Dunlap, Jr.,
USAF (Retired)

Charles J. Dunlap Jr., the former deputy judge advocate general of the United States Air Force, joined the Duke Law faculty in July 2010 where he is a professor of the practice of law and Executive Director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security. His teaching and scholarly writing focus on national security, international law, civil-military relations, cyberwar, airpower, counter-insurgency, military justice, and ethical issues related to the practice of national security law.

Dunlap retired from the Air Force in June 2010, having attained the rank of major general during a 34-year career in the Judge Advocate General Corps. In his capacity as deputy judge advocate general from May 2006 to March 2010, he assisted the judge advocate general in the professional supervision of more than 2,200 judge advocates, 350 civilian lawyers, 1,400 enlisted paralegals, and 500 civilians around the world. In addition to overseeing an array of military justice, operational, international, and civil law functions, he provided legal advice to the Air Staff and commanders at all levels.

In the course of his career, Dunlap has been involved in various high-profile interagency and policy matters, highlighted by his testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives concerning the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Dunlap previously served as staff judge advocate at Headquarters Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia and at Headquarters Air Education and Training Command at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas, among other leadership posts. His other assignments include the faculty of the Air Force Judge Advocate General School where he taught various civil and criminal law topics. An experienced trial lawyer, he also spent two years as a military trial judge for a 22-state circuit. He served tours in the United Kingdom and Korea, and he deployed for operations in the Middle East and Africa, including short stints in support of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also led military-to-military delegations to Colombia, Uruguay, Iraq, and the Czech Republic.

A prolific author and accomplished public speaker, Dunlap’s commentary on a wide variety of national security topics has been published in leading newspapers and military journals. His 2001 essay written for Harvard University’s Carr Center on “lawfare,” a concept he defines as “the use or misuse of law as a substitute for traditional military means to accomplish an operational objective,” has been highly influential among military scholars and in the broader legal academy.

Dunlap’s legal scholarship also has been published in the Stanford Law Review, the Yale Journal of International Affairs, the Wake Forest Law Review, the Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, the University of Nebraska Law Review, the Texas Tech Law Review, and the Tennessee Law Review, among others. He is the author of “The Origins of the Military Coup of 2012”, originally published in 1992, which was selected for the 40th Anniversary Edition of Parameters (Winter 2010-2011). He is also the author of “Airpower” in Understanding Counterinsurgency (Thomas Rid and Thomas Keaney, eds., Routledge, 2010), and his essay on “The Military Industrial Complex” appeared in the Summer 2011 issue of Daedalus.

His article on international humanitarian law was published in 2012 in the German Red Cross in their Journal of International law of Peace and Armed Conflict, and he has a forthcoming essay ion the European Journal of International Law. His chapter on military law appeared in The Modern American Military (David Kennedy, ed., Oxford University Press, 2013), and his op-ed, “Bringing Bergdahl Home Was the Right Choice—Deserter or Not,” was published by Time Magazine (online) in March of 2015.  Additionally, his commentaries “To Ban New Weapons or Regulate Their Use?” and “Is it Really Better to be Dead Than Blind?” appeared on the Just Security blog in April of 2015.

Dunlap has written a number of articles on cyberwar including “Perspectives for Cyber Strategists on Law for Cyberwar” which appeared in the Spring 2011 issue of Strategic Studies Quarterly and his piece, “Some Reflections on the Intersection of Law and Ethics in Cyber War,” was published in the Jan-Feb 2013 issue of Air & Space Power Journal.   His essay, “The Hyper-Personalization of War: Cyber, Big Data, and the Changing Face of Conflict,” appeared in the fall 2014 issue of the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.

His article, “Ethical Issues of the Practice of National Security Law,” was published by the Ohio Northern University Law Review in 2012, and re-published by the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Law & National Security for their annual conference in 2013. His chapter, “Clever or Clueless? Observations About Bombing Norm Debates,” appeared in The American Way of Bombing: Changing Ethical and Legal Norms, from Flying Fortresses to Drones (Matthew A. Evangelista and Henry Shue, eds., 2014).

Dunlap’s wife, Joy, was formerly a vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters, and most recently was the deputy director of Government Relations for the Military Officers Association of America. She is currently the president of the Duke Campus Club. They reside in Durham.

Emerson T. Brooking

Emerson T. Brooking is a Resident Fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council and coauthor of LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media. Most recently, he was Research Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations - the youngest researcher in a generation to receive such an appointment. He has served as an adviser on information warfare to the National Security Council, Joint Staff, and U.S. intelligence community, and his writing has been published in Foreign Affairs, WIRED, and Rolling Stone, among others. Brooking was recently named to the Forbes “30 Under 30.” He holds a BA in Political Science and Classical Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Panel 1. Theme: The Nature of Future Warfare

Panelist

Moderator

Panel 2. Theme: The Future of Leader Development

Panelist

Moderator

Panel 3. Theme: Ethical Implications of AI on the Future Battlefield

Panelist

Moderator

Submissions are Closed

2019 Military Science Fiction Story Contest

“When corpses of nanobots turn your blood to sludge, the only weapon you have is a crushed plasma launcher turned $75,000 paperweight, and your exoskeleton becomes nothing more than a cold tin can cocoon, you are going to wish you had remembered to activate that EMP shield. Don’t forget your pre-combat checks!” 

The University of North Georgia’s Institute for Leadership and Strategic Studies (ILSS), in conjunction with ILSS’s annual symposium, is holding a Military Science Fiction story contest. The contest theme ties with this year’s symposium theme: the Soldier of the Future. The contest focus is on junior leadership/preparing junior leaders/pre-commissioning education, with a Ranger lieutenant taking a central role. Preference will be given to submissions from current or past members of the Department of Defense (military and civilian) and the Intelligence Community.

Submissions are open from May 15 to October 15, 2019

Thematic Guidelines:

• Authors may use Special Operations Forces (SOF) of 20 years hence as the context, but Rangers are preferred over other “SOF Species.”
  • Rogers’ Rangers, established in 1751, is the longest historical connection our military has with any type of military organization (save the Militia, now the Guard). Keeping this historical continuity with the American Ranger in mind, submitted stories should keep one foot in reality and the other deep into the future.
• Stories should focus on a lieutenant infantry/combat unit platoon leader and their experiences. At minimum, the “platoon” needs to be mixed gender, like in Starship Troopers.

All reasonable future developments technical, political, and cultural may be considered such as:

• Possible modifications to Chain of Command resulting from technological changes
  • AI-assisted implants or wearables that can assess the immediate tactical situation and reassign ranks/responsibilities in real time
  • Soldiers reporting to foreign nationals who may have different ethics, values, and/or and equipment
  • AI-based VR simulations that run through thousands of possible scenarios in a tactical situation in microseconds, using all digital resources, and then recommend a few for the soldier to think about
  • Co-bots or companion bots that fight in front of or alongside humans, and the situations that arise from that, such as
    • Is the target value worth the cost/skills of destroying the co-bot?
    • Do co-bots answer to only one solder, or can they be overridden by higher command for any reason
• Real-time Rules of Engagement
  • In fighting adversaries with zero limitations, can a human direct a co-bot to switch to, say, Al Qaeda norms, or PRC, or Russian?
  • Can weapons deployment be overridden by higher command? The consequences?
• A strong interest in the individual soldier and their leader as technology and modifications are made available to the regular Soldier
• In addition to considering positive benefits of technologies, stories may weave in context from a previous experience where tech failures—like nanobots, exoskeletons, EMP, and viruses—left Soldiers helpless. Historical examples include:
  • The Battle of Kasserine Pass
  • The Battle of Cannae
  • Task Force Faith
• Stories may use the new “Space Force” as a backdrop
• For a different political and economic backdrop, stories may pose a “United States of the Americas” as a now-unified continental group by 2035+, but in great competition with an equally consolidated Asia (with exceptions) both in competition over Sub-Saharan African resources 
• Disruptive thought or ideas are welcomed. Think new tactics, new ROE, new and different adversaries and their tactics/technologies—and/or the disruptive elements of all of these.

Submission Rules

• Submit one manuscript per author to ungpress@ung.edu
• Subject line must read “Science Fiction Contest Submission”
• Open to all writers (inside and outside the U.S.)
• Must be fiction 
• Must be original and unpublished (authors retain sole rights to any works submitted)
• Must be 4,000 words or less
• Must use acceptable file types: doc, dox, rtf, pdf.
• Must use 8.5x11 page size, double-spaced throughout with 1-inch margins on top and bottom/1.25-inch margins on left and right sides
• Must use Arial, Courier, or Times font, 12 point font size
• Must be in the English language
• Winners and runners-up will allow the UNG Press first publication rights, after which rights will revert back to the authors
• Entries that promote hatred of any given race, religion, sex, or ethnicity will be disqualified.

Note: UNG Press/ILSS cannot be held responsible for any failure of the delivery of entries due to any electronic or internet outage issues. By entering this contest, you agree that you have read, understand, and agree that contest judging is subjective and that you agree to accept and abide by the decision making of the judges in the scoring and judging of the fiction you enter. By submitting your fiction, you agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless UNG/ILSS selected officers, judges, instructors, and staff associated with this contest.

Symposium Recordings

Wednesday, November 13

Watch Part 1

Administrative Remarks - Keith Antonia, UNG Associate Vice President for Military Programs

6:13​ Opening Remarks - Dr. Billy Wells, UNG Senior Vice President for Leadership & Global Engagement

16:48​  Speaker: Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jerry Leverich, U.S. Army (Retired), U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Director of Fusion and Assessments, on the Future Operational Environment 59:10​ Speaker: Major General Bob Scales, U.S. Army (Retired), Ph.D.

1:45:34​ Poster Session Summaries 

Watch Part 2

Panel Discussion Theme: The Nature of Future Warfare 

Watch Part 3

Speaker: Mr. Paul Scharre, Senior Fellow and Director, Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security; author of "Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War"

47:35​ Panel Discussion Theme: The Future of Leader Development

2:24:35​. Poster Session Summaries 2:29:00​

Speaker: Colonel Candice Frost, Director, Foreign Intelligence, U.S. Army Deputy Chief of Staff, G2 Intelligence

3:13:55​ Winning SciFi Story Reading, Mr. Gary Phillips, TRADOC Asst Deputy Chief of Staff, G2 

Thursday, November 14

Watch Day Two

16:56​ - Administrative Remarks - Keith Antonia, UNG Associate Vice President for Military Programs 

18:47​ - Opening Remarks - Dr. Billy Wells, UNG Senior Vice President for Leadership & Global Engagement and Executive Director of the Institute for Leadership and Strategic Studies Opening Remarks

21:37​ - Intro and Speaker: Major General Charles (Charlie) Dunlap, Jr., USAF (Ret.), Duke University Executive Director, Center on Law, Ethics and National Security

1:32:50​ - Intro and Speaker: Emerson T. Brooking is a Resident Fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council and coauthor of LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media

2:36:25​ - Panel Discussion Theme: Ethical Implications of AI on the Future Battlefield

Monograph

2019 Symposium Monograph