There is a new leader in your organization. First impressions are good. The leader projects confidence, charisma, and competence. Initially, the rapport developed across the organization is strong. However, as time goes on, what was initially projected as confidence increasingly gives way to an aggressiveness approaching bullying.

In his book, The Centaur’s Dilemma, renowned national security practitioner and former U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces Chief Judge James E. Baker contextualizes the expansive development of AI and its emerging legal structure. As in his previous literary works, Baker frames his terms and issues, the most pertinent of which is the “Centaur’s Dilemma,” or “how to reap the benefit of AI for national security purposes without losing control of the consequences.”

News & Notes 2021 Issue 4

On 17 November 1966, four infantrymen—Sergeant (SGT) David E. Gervase, and Privates First Class Steven C. Thomas, Cipriano S. Garcia, and Joseph C. Garcia—on a five-man reconnaissance patrol in South Vietnam entered a small village and kidnapped a twenty-year-old Vietnamese woman named Phan Thi Mao. 

Over our military careers we contemplated the question, “what makes a person an effective or good leader?” Today, we still ask of ourselves, “how can I become a better leader?” Focused on purely legal and technical missions, one might reasonably ask whether leadership is important to fulfill the duties of Army lawyer or paralegal.

On 2 June 2021, Hays Parks was buried amongst his fellow Marines at the Marine Corps Cemetery in Quantico, Virginia. This was as it should be, for those who knew Hays understood that he was a Marine’s Marine and a proud, vocal member of the Semper Fi fraternity. So, how did this dedicated “gyrene” find his way to the Army JAG Corps? 

It is Day 1 in your job as the new special victims counsel (SVC), and you get a call requesting SVC services for a victim of domestic violence. Your automatic inclination is to inquire further as to whether or not the victim is a victim of a sexual offense; otherwise, you are of the belief that they are not eligible for services. But then you remember the training you received on domestic violence at the SVC certification course, which drives you to dig deeper.

On 1 June 2021, Colonel (COL) Luis O. Rodriguez assumed his current duties as interim director of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI), Office of The Judge Advocate General (OTJAG). Born and raised in Puerto Rico, he has served in the Army for over forty years, in both the Reserve and Active Components, as an officer and noncommissioned officer.

The Novel Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) frustrated certain performance aspects of Department of Defense (DoD) contracts across the world. Among other things, contractors had problems getting their employees into and out of the Combined Joint Operations Area–Afghanistan (CJOA–A). Non-contracting activities were desperate to understand the associated rules, demanding contractors “figure out” a way to solve such entry and exit requirements.

Imagine, as a judge advocate (JA), you are assigned to a world-renowned institute as a teaching fellow. In your first few days, an expert, while physically holding his work in his hands on “Integrating Gender Perspectives into International Operations,” asks you to use a U.S. lens to discuss gender-based violence (GBV) and gender perspectives for an upcoming course.