The 21st Century has been dubbed an "era of persistent conflict" by U.S. military leaders. As a result, United States' defense forces will have to operate in environments requiring a variety of "full spectrum operations" for the near future. Stability operations are now considered as having equal importance to major combat operations and this thesis will explore an institutional approach to prepare U.S. military forces to conduct these types of operations. This thesis will analyze four themes: U.S. views on future stability and security operations, the United States' conventional force role in future stability and security operations, current efforts to institutionalize stability and security operations, and past U.S. institutional changes in response to threats in the strategic environment. Unfortunately, there is little unity of effort and ownership to institutionalize stability operations in the U.S. Army. This thesis recommends a new institution to educate and develop leaders to maximize unity of effort, flexibility and responsiveness for stability operations: the Stability and Security Center of Excellence.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
