Tony Cordesman and James Blackwell provide separate, but detailed sets of guidance for the development and integration of technology in support of the post-cold war national military strategy. Cordesman's "cookbook" approach to strategy and technology is a sober reminder that technology is not always a panacea, and if costs are not controlled, its multiplier effect will be less than 1.0. Cordesman lists the "iron laws" of the effective use of technology in war. These, he reminds us, are the basic starting points for research, development, and procurement decisions. The methods for integrating technology and strategy are, however, easier to identify than to manage in a highly politicized environment where guarding vested professional and economic interests in the "top line" of the defense budget are often more important than abstract concepts like optimizing the force-multiplying effects of technology. Because technologies have a more positive force multiplier effect when they interact, he concludes that we should plan a broad mix of technologies that are specifically integrated in a concept of operations. Under these conditions, technology could be decisive against most Third World threats. James Blackwell assesses the prospects and risks of integrating technology and military strategy. We must, he cautions, simultaneously embrace technology while avoiding dependency on it as a panacea for every future crisis or war. His study examines two distinct aspects of technological dependency. The first is a national military strategy that depends on resources (R&D) and technological innovation to compensate for a radically reduced force structure. The second is dependency on foreign sources of technology. Blackwell cautions that an investment strategy to achieve technological superiority should be balanced against the needs for efficiency and flexibility. In the future, there will be no political support for costly "silver bullets" that concentrate resources, denying the industrial base its needed hedge to expand production against greater than expected threats. A subset of technological dependency is the question of foreign technology. This compounds both potential benefits and risks. Blackwell draws upon research from general economic theory and from the defense sector to propose a balanced policy that maintains access to foreign technology while minimizing (not eliminating) the risks of both dependency on foreign sources and the unwanted diffusion of American technological advantages. Both authors describe the value of technology, and come to the same conclusion-its true value is determined only in the larger context of a military strategy that places an equal value on people, training, operational concepts and doctrine. The Strategic Studies Institute is pleased to publish these studies as part of a series that debates and amplifies individual strategic concepts from the National Military Strategy. Karl W. Robinson Colonel, U.S. Army Director, Strategic Studies Institute Back to Table of Contents Prospects and Risks of Technology Dependence Back to SSI List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by US Army War College. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com