Steven Metz
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Steven Kent Metz (born June 30, 1956 in Charleston, West Virginia) is an American author, Chairman of the Regional Strategy and Planning Department, and Research Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) where he specializes in insurgency and counterinsurgency, American defense policy, strategic theory, the African security environment, and future warfare. He has been with SSI since 1993, previously serving as Henry L. Stimson Professor of Military Studies and SSI's Director of Research. Metz has also been on the faculty of the U.S. Air War College, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and several universities. He has been an advisor to government agencies, political organizations, campaigns and commissions; served on many national security policy task forces; testified in both houses of Congress; and spoken on military and security issues around the world. He is the author of more than 100 publications and is frequently interviewed by print, television and radio media. He is a member of the RAND Corporation Insurgency Board and a member of the United States Republican Party.
[edit] Works
Metz's articles have appeared in journals such as Washington Quarterly[1], Joint Force Quarterly[2], The National Interest[3], and Current History [4]as well as a number of edited books. His major publications include:
- New Challenges and Old Concepts: Understanding 21st Century Insurgency [5]
- Restructuring America’s Ground Forces: Better, Not Bigger[6]
- Rethinking Insurgency[7]
- Strategies for Asymmetric Threats to US National Security[8]
- Learning from Iraq: Counterinsurgency in American Strategy [9]
- Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in the 21st Century [10];
- Future War/Future Battlespace[11];
- Asymmetry and U.S. Military Strategy[12];
- Armed Conflict in the 21st Century[13];
- "Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Iraq"; [14];
- La guerre asymétrique et l'avenir de l'Occident[15] and
- Insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan [16].
He is also an essayist for Project Syndicate [17]. Metz is the author of Iraq and the Evolution of American Strategy.[18]
[edit] Concepts
Metz has proposed several new concepts for the analysis of military strategy and national security policy:
- psychological precision: the idea that modern militaries should be designed so that their operations attain desired psychological effects rather than simply hitting targets with precision. This concept was discussed in the 2001 "Year in Ideas" essay in the New York Times[19]
- effects based planning for counterinsurgency: the idea that counterinsurgency planning should be determined by an array of psychological effects
- ethical asymmetry: the idea that normative differences between opponents in armed conflict is an important feature of 21st century warfare
- cultural asymmetry and counterinsurgency: the idea that the United States' approach to counterinsurgency support only works in nations with Western or Western-derived cultures
- personal versus strategic motives in insurgency: the idea that insurgencies where strategic motives--those directed toward a desired political outcome--dominate differ in significant ways from ones where personal motives--the desire for revenge, prestige, or material gain--drive most insurgents.
- a new technological revolution for counterinsurgency: the idea that technology can, to some extent, substitute for labor in counterinsurgency, but not simply through the application of technology developed for conventional warfighting. A technological revolution for counterinsurgency (and other forms of asymmetric and irregular conflict) should be based on robotics (including micro- and nano-robotics), nonlethality, and psychotechnology.
[edit] Education
Metz holds a BA in philosophy and MA in International Studies from the University of South Carolina; and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Johns Hopkins University
