The U.S. Army War College (USAWC) Strategy Conference each year addresses a major security issue of relevance to the United States and its allies. Recognizing that the ultimate symbol of the nation's commitment is boots on the ground, the USAWC focuses the Strategy Conference on the subject's implications for ground power. The conference brings together top national security strategists, senior military leaders, media, university faculty, and the policymaking community to consider, discuss, and debate topics concerning America's national security strategy. The 2006 conference was designed to help frame vital questions that offer insights on the conference theme: A Nation at War. The phrase A Nation at War evokes images of mobilization of the nation's resources: military surely, but also the government, industry, and the population. Thus far in the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), though, the mobilization has not been on the scale seen in past global wars. As the Nation approached the 5-year mark of the start of the GWOT, the USAWC focused the attention of its Seventeenth Annual Strategy Conference on whether or not the evidence supports the continuing assumption that the Nation is really at war. Some would insist that the answer is obviously yes. The conference studied this question in depth with panels on the homeland security aspects, the international context, the legal foundation for the war, and the associated economic and domestic policy issues. The conclusion was that the answer to the question is not as clear as first thought. Much of the evidence suggests that the Nation or at least some parts of it is not at war. The Strategic Studies Institute is pleased to provide this summary, analysis, and associated papers from the 2006 conference.

"Seventeenth annual strategy conference, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, April 11-13, 2006." "January 2007."

Introduction -- Panel I. The homeland security context: national access vs. national security -- Panel II. The international context: coalition building and maintenance -- Panel III. The domestic context: the reserve components at war -- Keynote address -- Panel IV. The economic context: globalization vs. national security -- Panel V. The international law and national security context: competing legal issues -- Conclusion.