The US Army War College (USAWC) Strategic Studies Institute’s (SSI) held its annual Carlisle Conference on the PLA on March 25 and 26, 2026, in the Army Heritage and Education Center at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. The China Landpower Studies Center (CLSC) successfully hosted the event for the second time, bringing together more than 100 war fighters, policymakers, and China-focused experts to analyze and debate the PRC’s capabilities to react to regional and strategic-level crises. Participants from the US Department of War and Intelligence Community joined professionals from academia, think tanks, private industry, and other US government organizations to listen and respond to a series of expert panels and discuss panelist findings and other topics of interest in impactful breakout discussions.
Preconference Event
On March 24, the day before the conference, SSI and CLSC members held an information panel and follow-on question-and-answer session for USAWC students and faculty to discuss PLA decision-making, strategy, and force modernization. A senior intelligence analyst from the Army’s newly established Transformation and Training Command (T2COM) G-2 opened the event with a presentation on how the new organization is creating learning materials for the Joint Force on the PRC’s military capabilities from the tactical to the strategic levels.
Figure 1. Ms. Jennifer Dunn, a T2COM G-2 senior analyst, opens the USAWC student event on March 24.
Day One Highlights
On the first day of the conference, Dr. C. Anthony Pfaff, director of SSI and the USAWC Press, delivered opening comments and then introduced Brigadier General Jackie Huber, assistant adjutant general for the North Dakota National Guard and deputy commanding general for Army University/USAWC – Reserve Affairs. She outlined the history of the conference, the CLSC’s role in USAWC research, and the impact of the event’s theme on national security strategy. Huber then welcomed Lieutenant General J. B. Vowell, deputy commanding general for US Army Pacific (USARPAC), who discussed how the conference’s analysis was necessary for war fighters in the Indo-Pacific.
Figure 2. Dr. C. Anthony Pfaff, director of SSI and the USAWC Press, presents opening comments on March 25, the first day of the conference.
Figure 3. Brigadier General Jackie Huber, assistant adjutant general for the North Dakota National Guard and the deputy commanding general for Army University/USAWC – Reserve Affairs, explains the 2026 conference theme and the impact of SSI CLSC research.
Figure 4. Lieutenant General J. B. Vowell, deputy commanding general for USARPAC, describes the importance of the conference and its necessity for war fighters and policymakers.
Immediately following the VIP opening comments, Dr. David Finkelstein, distinguished research fellow for national security affairs at the Center for Naval Analyses, served as the conference’s keynote speaker and delivered a tremendous address on two transformations that occurred in parallel over the past 40 year—the modernization of the PLA and the growth of the field of PLA studies in the United States.
Figure 5. Dr. David Finkelstein, distinguished research fellow for national security affairs at the Center for Naval Analyses, presents the conference’s keynote address.
The first panel of experts from the Department of War and the private sector assessed the PLA’s capability to command operations assigned to its Northern Theater Command and the PRC’s ability to carry out complex missions like noncombatant evacuation operations and securing WMD on the Korean Peninsula. The second panel of experts from professional military education institutes and the Army’s newly established T2COM analyzed how the PLA Eastern and Southern Theater Commands oversee assigned campaigns in their regions and included assessments of the PLA’s capability to conduct small island seizures and stability operations in Myanmar.
Figure 6. Dr. Diana Y. Myers, former US Air Force RAND PhD fellow, discusses her research on the PLA’s Northern Theater Command as part of the conference’s first panel.
Day Two Highlights
Dr. Phillip Saunders of the National Defense University (NDU) kicked off the second day of the conference with an interactive discussion that highlighted the NDU team’s research on the implications of the ongoing purges of senior military leaders in China, including the January 2026 removals of Central Military Commission Vice-Chairman Zhang Youxia and Joint Staff Department Director Liu Zhenli.
Figure 7. Dr. Phillip Saunders, director of the NDU Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs, leads an interactive discussion on the impacts of senior PLA leadership purges on the second day of the conference.
After the opening discussion, the third panel of Army and Air War College professors and a renowned private-industry expert assessed the command capability of the PLA’s Western Theater Command, ongoing PLA cooperation with Pakistan, and the PRC’s growing capacity to conduct counterterrorism operations in Central and South Asia. The fourth and final panel of private-industry experts focused on the PRC’s ability to react to crises in the more strategic domains of cyberspace and space, including a comprehensive review of the PLA Central Theater Command’s capability to oversee capital defense and other assigned missions.
Figure 8. Dr. Christopher Colley, associate professor in the Air War College Department of National Security Studies, presents his findings on the capabilities of the PLA Western Theater Command during the conference’s third panel.
Figure 9. Mr. J. Michael Dahm, senior resident fellow for aerospace and China studies at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, describes the complex missions and organization of the PLA’s Central Theater Command during the conference’s fourth panel.
Figure 10. Ms. Missi Holley, SSI’s administrative officer, receives a coin from USAWC Commandant Colonel Donald Santillo to recognize her incredible work in making the conference so successful.
Conference Takeaways
Key takeaways from the conference’s panels and events include:
- The PLA’s level of modernization and capability to oversee major peripheral campaigns differs among the five joint theater commands. For example, major improvements have been observed in the Eastern and Western Theater Commands, while Northern Theater Command is still lacking in equipment modernization and training despite its responsibility for highly complex regional campaigns.
- The impacts of PLA senior leadership purges may not have an immediate effect on the military’s ability to carry out many of its missions, but the implications will likely become apparent in the coming years with the advancement of new general officers.
- The PRC has made steady progress in developing its ability to react to crises in the strategic space and cyberspace domains. In the cyberspace domain, coordination mechanisms and contested authorities within the civilian-military framework remain less a coherent architecture than a patchwork of overlapping responsibilities.
Upcoming Conference Volume
Panel members authored outstanding chapters on their assigned topics that will be included in the final conference volume to be published in summer 2026. Until then, look for interviews with panel members to discuss their findings in upcoming CLSC Dialogues podcasts and CLSC Quick Takes that offer expert analysis of select sources and provide timely insight in a succinct format rather than as formerly cited academic products.
For previous conferences and volumes, see:
2024 Carlisle Conference on the PLA
Decisive Decade: PRC Global Strategy and the PLA as a Pacing Challenge – 2023 PLA Conference – Updated and Expanded
PLA Logistics and Sustainment | PLA Conference 2022