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2018-02-21

The UAE National Defense College: Building a Legacy of Security Strategists

By: Dr. Thomas A. Drohan

Dean of the National Defense College

Part 2

In this second of two essays that highlight Dr John Ballard’s Nation Shield contributions as Dean of the National Defense College, I draw attention to two themes —“framing strategic issues” and “implementing strategy.” Together with insights on “envisioning the future” and “recognizing strategic challenges,” these four themes offer us core competencies for the security strategist.

Framing strategic issues goes beyond recognizing that there are strategic challenges. Effective framing of an issue promotes the setting of conditions that can help shape a desired future. Toward this end, Dr Ballard wrote about a variety of issues. These include space and security, renewable energy, demography and national power, stabilization and reconstruction in Yemen, and the concept of sovereignty and power. Rather than describing these issues as hopelessly problematic, Dr Ballard framed them in terms of changing conditions through purposeful decision making. In an article about instruments of power, for instance, he described national tools as capabilities for achieving different types of desired effects. He described these effects in terms of three types of results—compromise, persuasion, and if warranted, coercion. Making such decisions requires assessing risk and taking on the responsibility of assuming risk. Balanced decisions avoid the recklessness of ideological strategies and the paralysis of seeking scientifically-certain strategies.

The UAE is fortunate to have a legacy of security strategy that is comprehensive and ambitious within an achievable vision. This does not happen simply by recognizing that problems exist. Achieving goals happens because leaders frame strategic issues in terms of what can be done about a situation. By continuing this legacy, proactive condition-setting can empower decision making and guide implementation.

Implementing strategy can then become proactive with respect to scope and timing, and adaptive in terms of desired ends, ways and means. Dr. Ballard discussed several aspects of implementation, such as achieving human security through Soft Power, considering all elements of national power, employing coalitions, initiating credible communication, and dealing with uncertainty through creative leadership that manages change. The scope of each of these examples is broad and requires active coordination across bureaucratic boundaries, just as recognizing new challenges requires broad-minded thinking. Timing needs to be proactive too because adversaries look for opportunities to own the initiative. Because implementation is interactive, we must adaptively evaluate the whole process of strategy: what we want achieve; how to bring that about; and when to make decisions. We need to do all of that persistently, accurately and more quickly than our competitors.

The need to develop effective strategies and planning in a dynamic security environment led to the establishment of the National Defense College in 2013. Dr John Ballard, under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Major General Staff Pilot Rashad Al Sa’adi, developed a curriculum that addresses critical threats, opportunities and challenges. The College remains focused on developing the most precious and enduring of a nation’s resources, our people. Each year, talented individuals from various organizations and specialties form a cohort of graduate participants. Together with skilled and committed faculty, we strive to develop leaders who embrace the uncertainty of a complex world, who dare to envision the future and recognize challenges, and who frame issues in ways that lead to executable strategies.

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