"Credible Response: The threat of punishment or reward, the requisite capabilities and capacities to deliver, and the unqualified certainty to carry through as promised.


Credible Influence: A reputation earned through persistent and consistent engagement of a nature that promotes appropriate behavior in others without requiring either the threat or actual exertion of action.


Credible Response remains the cornerstone for deterring, disrupting, and defeating state-based threats. However, in the emergent era of empowered populaces and non-state actors it become increasingly clear that we must augment this core capability with Credible Influence as well. This demands that we build a force, and design and synchronize operations that lend to the overall U.S. national credibility rather than drawing upon that same sorely taxed account."


Ok, the Credible Response definition that I lay out above borrows heavily from John Collins' excellent thoughts on deterrence from the late 70's. As I look to how to augment these time honored concepts I do not believe that we need to make radical changes to how we train, organize and equip our units, but do need to make a major change in how we think about how to execute our operations.

So much of strategic thought today is about exerting force of arms to either maintain or re-set a status quo that finds increasing resistance every day, both from rising states and rising populaces as well. Central to my premise is that we can be far more successful by enabling change that we can live with and are a part of, over resisting change at every juncture and ending up on the outside looking in once the dust finally settles.