Command and General Staff College Foundation News Spring 2021 - 16

- from page 15

Reading and studying material produced and directed toward an
internal or regional audience expands the understanding...
that will resonate with allies and adversaries alike in ways
that are relevant and meaningful.
The second innovation of this course, and one of the
most difficult to achieve, was adopting the perspective
of " the other " in teaching. In pursuing this effort, we
relied almost exclusively on academic and current events
reading materials, entertainment and literature from the
selected countries and region. This approach exposed
future planners to perspectives that could not be organically
obtained. Reading and studying material produced and
directed toward an internal or regional audience expands
the understanding of intentions, actions and potential
response options. As a result, students often found that our
perspectives and views were not universally shared by allies
nor fully understood by potential challengers. For example,
how Germany interprets Russia is based on a completely
different geographic, historical and economic perspective
than the U.S. Although there exists common ground for
collaboration, we can exacerbate underlying tensions if we
do not consider the full implications of planned approaches.
In considering the multitude of alternative perspectives,
planners and commanders are better able to assess risk,
hedge against group think and mirror-imaging and produce
more informed, contextually useful approaches.
Finally, we fired the interest and imagination for student
learning by nominating relevant countries from the national
defense strategy or those seen as significant actors in
future competition scenarios. The candidate countries were
then adopted by members of the SAMS faculty based on
their interest and subject matter expertise in designing the

course tracks. This year's offerings included China, India,
Russia, Germany, Iran, Turkey, North and South Korea.
All country tracks shared a common grounding in the
change and adaption in such theories as John Boyd, and
an understanding of Lanir's situational and fundamental
surprise construct to evaluate implications to U.S. strategy.
Each country then had an independent study program for
selected students to explore. The final exercise blended
members from each of the country teams for the purpose
of analyzing our national defense strategy to identify
potential points of collaboration, completion, crisis and
conflict. Both faculty and students assessed the course as
highly effective and SAMS is continuing to improve and
expand course offerings with the inclusion of Brazil in next
academic year.
Navigating the challenges and opportunities presented
in an ever-changing and evolving operational environment
requires leaders that can analyze, assess, adapt and innovate
to maintain the competitive edge. The effectiveness of their
approaches will be weighed by the ability to influence
others toward a common outcome. SAMS goal with the
new Great Powers Perspectives Course is to help expand
the thinking of our future operational planners and leaders
in order to expand influence in planning and execution. In
considering a variety of alternative viewpoints, it is possible
to facilitate strategic empathy which can lead to generating
and exploring options that enable healthy competition,
mitigate crises, and avoid needless conflict in the future.
Today more than ever, SAMS remains committed to
challenging our students, our thinking and the future.

FACULTY HIGHLIGHT

Dr. Alice Butler-Smith - School of Advanced Military Studies

Dr. Alice Butler-Smith is an associate professor of history in the Advanced Military Studies
Program (AMSP) of the School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS). She holds a master's in
International Relations and Comparative Politics, and a Ph.D. with specialties in Middle East
History, American Diplomatic and Military History, and International Relations and Comparative
Politics from the University of Kansas.
Butler-Smith is a James B. Pearson Fellow and a Fellow of the Temple University Feinstein
Center for American Jewish History. She has conducted extensive archival research in American
and British Middle East diplomacy and Middle East politics in the United States, Great Britain,
and Israel. Additionally, she has taught at King's College, London, and is currently an adjunct
faculty member at the University of Kansas.
Dr. Butler-Smith has been a member of the SAMS faculty since 2005. She teaches across the
curriculum on topics related to Great Power perspectives, military theory and history, design, and Middle East history
and politics. She also serves as the Operational Planning Team Lead for the Great Powers Perspectives course in AMSP.
In that role SAMS Director Col. Brian Payne said that Butler-Smith has developed, executed, and continues to refine an
exceptionally innovative course that now functions as an exemplar for other professional military education courses. Dr.
Butler-Smith conceptualized a unique theoretical framework for use in the course that provides students with a powerful
tool for understanding the perspectives of other players on the world stage. The course has quickly become a student
favorite in the AMSP curriculum.

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Command and General Staff College Foundation News Spring 2021

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