The presentation with the title "Policy and Strategy Challenges for a World in Conflict and Crisis“ was delivered by Adjunct Policy Analyst with the RAND (Research and Development) Corporation and former U.S. Coordinator for the Department of Defense (DoD)/NATO Defense Education Enhancement Program (DEEP) on 26th June 2026 in premises of the Armed Forces Academy of general M. R. Štefánik in Liptovský Mikuláš (AFA).

During the office call, Dr. Alan Stolberg was warmly welcomed by the rector/commandant, BG Aurel Sabó with a focused talk about his experiences gained from the different levels of command during his 30-years’ service in the U.S. Army and his personal involvement in the lessons learned process from the currently ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

The main goal of the presentation, which followed the office call, was to address the casual challenges for the 21st century policy and strategy makers among the AFA military and civilian academics. The thesis was that policy and strategy makers must take the following issues into account in ways they may not have had to in the past such as the Information Revolution, Other Technology (e.g., drone warfare), Economic (e.g., the need for certain supply chains), Environmental (e.g., Arctic melting, global south getting hotter), Political (e.g., rise of authoritarianism and populism), Societal (e.g., greater willingness for some societies to resist the employment of different instruments of national power against them and endure greater pain than anticipated  (as seen in Iraq, Ukraine, Iran) than might have happened in the past. 

Dr. Stolberg stressed that the time factor is  a more important policy and strategy resource problem than in the past, due to the constant potential for rapid change, in his conclusion.