ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM

The third annual Unrestricted Warfare Symposium (URW) is sponsored by The Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory and Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. The Symposium is co-sponsored by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy), the Department of State’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism (DoS/CT), and the National Intelligence Council (NIC). The theme of the 2008 event is "Integrating Strategy, Analysis, and Technology in Support of the U.S. War on Terrorism Campaign."

The DoD concept for that campaign employs five lines of operation—two aimed directly at our nation’s terrorist adversaries and three that approach those adversaries indirectly by enhancing the capabilities of our international partners. The overall war on terrorism campaign and its direct and indirect lines of operation provide the thematic context for this year’s URW Symposium. By offering a themed keynote address, featured speakers, and roundtables addressing each line of operation, the Symposium seeks to integrate diverse perspectives to further develop an understanding of terrorist threats and strategies for combating them.

A panel of senior government leaders will offer their perspectives on this critical challenge and answer questions from participants. The Symposium also features interactive audience participation using electronic groupware that all participants can access. Following the Symposium, we again plan to publish a formal Proceedings documenting the presentations and discussions. This book will be provided to all attendees as soon as practicable after the event.

FEATURED SPEAKERS
ADM Eric Olson, the Commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, will give the Symposium’s keynote presentation. He will provide his perspective on the integration of strategy, analysis, and technology in support of the U.S. war on terrorism campaign. Other featured speakers include Dr. Thomas Mahnken, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Policy Planning, who will describe the future trends and shocks likely to confront our nation; Prof. Bruce Hoffman, who will describe the terrorist adversaries who threaten us; Prof. Peter Feaver, who will discuss the role of the other Federal departments and agencies in combating terrorism; and Dr. Stephen Flynn, who will discuss the role homeland defense plays in combating such threats.

ROUNDTABLES
The Symposium will also include six roundtables, each composed of a moderator and several panelists. Five of the roundtables will address the specific lines of operation identified in the U.S. war on terrorism campaign, with a sixth on homeland defense. The first day will include roundtables on disrupting adversary networks, denying access to and use of weapons of mass destruction, and enabling our international partners to combat terrorist adversaries. The second day will include roundtables on deterring tacit and active support of terrorist organizations, eroding support for extremist ideologies, and defending the U.S. homeland from terrorist attacks. The moderator will provide a brief overview of the topic and introduce the panelists. Each panelist will then have 10 to 15 minutes to present his or her views, after which the group will take questions from the audience.

SENIOR-LEVEL PANEL
The Symposium’s culminating event is a panel of senior-level government and military leaders—such as DoD’s Deputy Asst. Secretary for Policy Planning, Deputy Director of Program Analysis & Evaluation, and Asst. Secretary for Special Operations and Limited Intensity Conflict, as well as senior representatives from the National Intelligence Council, the State Department, and the National Counterterrorism Center—who will offer their perspectives on integrating strategy, analysis, and technology to support the U.S. war on terrorism campaign. Panelists will then take questions from the audience.

WHAT IS UNRESTRICTED WARFARE?
The first rule of unrestricted warfare is that there are no rules; nothing is forbidden. The United States is encountering a national security threat different from the conventional warfare for which we have become preeminent in the world. This new threat, known as “unrestricted warfare,” spans two of the four “security environments” DoD identifies for use in strategic planning: Irregular and Catastrophic, as contrasted with Traditional and Disruptive challenges. Terrorism, the focus of this year’s Unrestricted Warfare Symposium, is just one of the many attack means that can be employed by unrestricted warfare adversaries.

In general, such adversaries are expected to employ surprise and deception in asymmetric attacks and use both civilian technology and military weapons as they attempt to break the opponent’s will. Adversaries employing unrestricted warfare are expected to use many modalities to create integrated attacks exploiting diverse areas of vulnerability in support of their grand strategy. Unrestricted warfare battlefields can be expanded beyond the obvious physical domain to include other areas such as culture, drug trade, economic aid, environment, finances, media, information networks, natural resources, and smuggling.

"This is another type of war, new in its intensity, ancient in its origins—war by guerrillas, subversives, insurgents, assassins; war by ambush instead of by combat; by infiltration, instead of aggression, seeking victory by eroding and exhausting the enemy instead of engaging him… It requires in those situations where we must counter it…. a whole new kind of strategy, a wholly different kind of force, and therefore a new and wholly different kind of military training."
John F. Kennedy
USMA Graduation Speech, 1962

SYMPOSIUM OBJECTIVE
We are assessing what leading strategists, analysts, and technologists should consider viable future force capabilities when combating unrestrictive warfare threats. Active attendee participation and networking will form a new, integrated community dedicated to countering our increasingly sophisticated adversaries.