In January 1999, then-Marine Corps Commandant General Charles C. Krulak envisioned a new kind of small-unit leader, capable of simultaneously handling humanitarian operations, mid-intensity wars, and military operations other than armed conflict. He defined such a leader and environment in his essay “The Strategic Corporal: Leadership in the Three Block War,” in which he introduced “Corporal Hernandez,” a fictional squad leader who finds himself simultaneously preventing opposing factions from coming to blows, managing violent protests, and deciding whether to send out a rescue team after an international aid helicopter is shot down.
Krulak foresaw such a situation as the “likely battlefield of the 21st century” and predicted that the “rapid diffusion of technology, the growth of a multitude of transnational factors, and the consequences of increasing globalization and economic interdependence” would converge “to create national security challenges remarkable for their complexity.” To prepare for this kind of future, Krulak said junior leaders needed strong character, training, and leadership skills.
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