Scott Kindsvater

Scott Kindsvater Speaking Topics

• 21st Century Security Environment

  National security is the key to American progress, but it often comes at a high cost. For the first time since the 1940s, we face competition and conflict with state adversaries in Asia and Europe; and different than the 1940s we are sprinting into this security environment at the pace of our times. Our competitors want to eat away at the West, across all elements of national power and across all the domains of land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. The rest of this century will be framed by three enduring problems;

  Instability to include human drivers of instability.

  • More proliferated world of precision munitions and WMD.
  • Return of Global Power hi-end competition-all of this framed under a headline that fear of losing something is what drives Nations to act and single leader Nations like RUS and CHN tend to react more and more violently.

  This century will be complex, ambiguous, volatile, and uncertain – if we want to flourish, we better embrace those qualities.

  Future Strategic Choices:

  • Our country stands at a tumultuous crossroad, often with seemingly more questions than answers. We’ll briefly discuss the keys to success and strategic choices for our Nation and the Global West of like-minded Nations. Keys to success: China, Integrated deterrence and deterrence by preparedness, Global West and soft power, Education-National resilience, and Bi-partisan effort.

• China

  In 1899, the US Secretary of State said that the “storm center of the world has shifted to China” and we continue to talk about this shift and pivot. Since the beginning of our Nation, we have moved to be a Pacific power; in 1780 we sent commercial ships to China, and we’ve had a persistent National logic that access, and penetration of our ideas prevent threats from emanating.

  China wants to change the global order, the global security umbrella, and the global trade commons. Over the next two years, an intensified PRC effort to arrest Taiwan’s independent drift may elicit a militant response by the US to include forcing the US private sector in line with sweeping punitive measures.

  RUS/UKR War: Wars often develop into stalemates that neither side dare lose; a process of competitive collapse even though both sides are suffering…that seems to be where this war is headed. Nations act when they fear losing something and single leader Nations like Russia act more often and more violently. War hasn’t changed: the importance of strategy, leadership, combined arms, control of the air, will of the people and it is always more resource intensive than planned. How does the US continue to lead the West and secure the peace in Ukraine by examining a strategy options, their risks and possible outcomes.

World with no Arms Control

Others have chosen not to follow America’s lead in reducing the roles of nuclear weapons. Multiple countries have chosen to increase their reliance on nuclear weapons and the prominence of nuclear weapons in their security strategy and are conducting extensive modernization programs for their nuclear forces while adding new nuclear capabilities. Examine the new US strategy of “Integrated Deterrence” as the cornerstone of our national defense. A critical concern with China’s nuclear breakout is that they are not constrained by arms control agreements so this forum and many others must address how we can encourage China into an arms control arrangement and convince the leaders it is in their interests to do so, ideally multi-lateral, if not, perhaps a bi-lateral agreement.

NATO 3.0

Adapting rapidly, NATO went from Cold War relic to a bulwark of freedom in a short thirty years. Examine the historical NATO 1.0, 2.0 and now 3.0 transitions and the pillars of the Alliance (Political Cohesion, Standardization, Nuclear Weapons). Assess if the Alliance is fit for purpose in the 21st century to secure peace for the next generations as it has done for the last 79 years.

Explore Regional Context:

• International relations are delicate.
• Depending on the region of the world where cruise is embarking, examine the diplomatic, information, military, and economic elements of national power across the region.
• Understand how cultural and religious histories affect regional politics and national perspectives and how the world’s global powers are competing in the region.

Keys to Leadership

After 32 years in the military with 10 combat deployments, what are the keys to leadership, maintaining a marriage, raising successful children and finding your life balance.