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Gates called for the creation of new government organizations, including a permanent group of civilian experts with a wide range of expertise who could be sent abroad on short notice as a supplement to U.S. military efforts. And he urged more involvement by university and other private experts.
"We must focus our energies beyond the guns and steel of the military, beyond just our brave soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen," he said in a speech at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan. "We must also focus our energies on the other elements of national power that will be so crucial in the coming years."
He said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as U.S. military involvement in the 1990s in the Balkans and in Somalia, have shown that long-term success requires more than U.S. military power.
"Based on my experience serving seven presidents, as a former director of CIA and now as secretary of defense, I am here to make the case for strengthening our capacity to use `soft' power and for better integrating it with `hard' power," Gates said.
Holy Hannah! Does anyone else read this like the cooperation in 1930s Germany? Am I just easily squicked by someone referring to our universities as "soft power?"
The military is put under civilian rule in our constitution for a reason. And the separation between military and civilian is -- and is supposed to be -- a hard line that's not easily crossed.
Maybe it's still feeling bad from the bronchitis.
"We must focus our energies beyond the guns and steel of the military, beyond just our brave soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen," he said in a speech at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan. "We must also focus our energies on the other elements of national power that will be so crucial in the coming years."
He said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as U.S. military involvement in the 1990s in the Balkans and in Somalia, have shown that long-term success requires more than U.S. military power.
"Based on my experience serving seven presidents, as a former director of CIA and now as secretary of defense, I am here to make the case for strengthening our capacity to use `soft' power and for better integrating it with `hard' power," Gates said.
Holy Hannah! Does anyone else read this like the cooperation in 1930s Germany? Am I just easily squicked by someone referring to our universities as "soft power?"
The military is put under civilian rule in our constitution for a reason. And the separation between military and civilian is -- and is supposed to be -- a hard line that's not easily crossed.
Maybe it's still feeling bad from the bronchitis.
