The Past as Prologue by Dennis Gormley

“The Past as Prologue: Reflections on Relevant Patterns of Cold War and Post-Cold War Security Challenges”
Throughout history, the drive for new military technology has precipitated the rise and fall of nations. This legacy has taken a new shape between the United States and China. In the past decade, China increased its military spending over ten percent, and sent its military through a comprehensive overhaul of its equipment, tactics, and training. United States policy makers have debated how to respond to China’s new, aggressive military development. Mr. Dennis Gormley, co-author of A Low-Visibility Force Multiplier: Assessing China’s Cruise Missile Ambitions, will lecture on China’s cruise and ballistic missile arsenal and argue that it is China’s most dangerous weapon.
In his lecture, Mr. Dennis Gormley will examine the extent to which China has incorporated elements of the Soviet Union’s approach, developed during the early 1980s, to exploiting the effectiveness of conventionally armed missiles to achieve major military objectives against NATO in wartime. He argues that much of what the Soviets planned in this regard was passed on to the Chinese and now manifests itself in current Chinese exploitation of both ballistic and land-attack cruise missiles. Mr. Gormley will also provide an overall assessment of the direction and pace of China’s military developments.
Lecture Date: August 19, 2015
Length: 75 Minutes