20 Aug 2018
On August 2nd, Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program Executive Director Elsbeth Magilton represented the Deterrence and Assurance Academic Alliance (DAAA) at the Annual U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) Deterrence Symposium in front of 750 people, including the USSTRATCOM Commander General Hyten and multiple generals from the US military and those of our allies, featuring impressive student research the Alliance selected to highlight at this larger conference.
Last year the College of Law joined with the University’s Political Science department to co-host the annual Deterrence and Assurance Academic Alliance spring conference this March. The USSTRATCOM DAAA harnesses the work of academics and researchers, asking them to collaborate with both one another and with individuals inside USSTRATCOM to think about deterrence in new and challenging ways. The DAAA is an alliance made up of over 40 academic institutions focusing on the modern complexities of assurance and deterrence.
In introducing her panel of student authors, Magilton said “This year my conference co-planner Professor Tyler White and I wanted to push the boundaries of traditional approaches and simultaneously indulge in a pun, calling our event, “Thinking Outside the Silo: Creative Problem Solving in Deterrence and Assurance." Our goal was simple. To challenge conventional wisdom to address the changing landscape of security threats and war fighting domains. Presentations featured outside the box thinking and used new and innovative methodologies to reassess old problems and address new ones in deterring adversaries and assuring our allies. Over two days, students and faculty presented, debated, and pushed one another to higher levels. The conference featured a student-centric table top exercise and challenged our interdisciplinary group to strategize and think in ways they hadn’t before. In summary, I know my institution and our students greatly benefit from our participation in the Alliance and I am hopeful that our work contributes to their men and women who work at STRATCOM every day.”
The highlighted papers covered a range of topics, from cyber threats facing NC3 to explaining conflicts that fall short of war, from analyzing how urban geography shapes nuclear strategy to mining the rhetoric of North Korea. In Magilton’s words, “Their work represents what the Alliance does best: engage a new generation of deterrence thinkers and push the boundaries of traditional thinking.”