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Symposium to tie history, current warfare

The Combat Studies Institute will hold a symposium to discuss the Army and enemy fighters who are not aligned with a sovereign nation.

The three-day meeting on military history and non-state actors will take place Sept. 11-13 at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and will feature a list of speakers from various academic, media and military arenas who will address a mix of historical and contemporary affairs topics.

The symposium’s format is a shift from previous years, which featured a more academic approach with multiple, multi-person panels.

“We did that to increase the relevance of military history to today’s military challenges, to help leaders understand how to use the past to prepare for current and future operations,” said Col. Timothy Reese, director of the Combat Studies Institute.

The activity will take place in Fort Leavenworth’s new Command General Staff Course building, the Lewis and Clark Center, which will be dedicated in a mid-August ceremony, he said.

Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey will open the symposium with the keynote speech on Sept. 11, and Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, will address the gathering on Sept. 13, Reese said.

Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, who recently assumed responsibility for the Combined Arms Center, will address the symposium, offering a report from Iraq, where he served for a year as chief of communications for Multi-National Force-Iraq.

The symposium is open to the public and free of charge. Reese encouraged anyone planning to attend the symposium to visit the Combined Studies Institute Web site at http://usacac.army.mil/CAC/csi to view the draft agenda and register.