Jamestown Foundation Hosts Discussion of PLA Organization for NIP

NIP’s Capital Chapter members congregated on Monday, 13 April in Washington, D.C. at The Jamestown Foundation’s offices for a panel discussion of PLA as Organization 3.0, a reference volume that provides a comprehensive analysis of the organizational structure of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the armed forces of the Chinese Communist Party. The panel members, all of whom are authors and editors of the volume, included: Frank Miller, a former U.S. Army attache in Beijing and the Vice President for Intelligence Integration for Exovera; Ken Allen, a former U.S. Air Force attache in Beijing and Taipei as well as an advisory board member emeritus of the Samuel B. Griffith Foundation; and Arran Hope, the editor of China Brief at The Jamestown Foundation. 

The panel discussion brought out a wealth of interesting and detailed information about the PLA as an organization that clearly reflected the experience and depth of knowledge of the panelists. Frank Miller began by providing a short discussion of the book’s purpose and an overview of the chapters. The intent, as he described it, was to build a reference book that reflects PLA reform since 2015. Ken Allen followed with more on how the PLA is organized, stressing the importance of understanding the PLA through the Chinese perspective and not the way we necessarily view it. Following the presentations, the panel took questions from the audience. During NIP Chair VADM (Ret) Bob Sharp’s closing remarks at the end of the evening, he thanked the panel members and Jamestown Foundation for the insightful discussion and emphasized, as he often does, that “What we do matters,” and taking the time out of our schedules to participate in events like the panel discussion is important. 

On behalf of NIP, many thanks to the The Jamestown Foundation for a fantastic and informative evening.

(The Jamestown Foundation is a think tank that provides primary-source analysis on global developments of strategic importance to the United States and its allies.)

The panelists: Jeff Bolander (introduced the panel), Arran Hope, Frank Miller, and Ken Allen

Frank Miller provided an overview of PLA as Organization 3.0.

NIP Chair VADM (Ret) Bob Sharp provided closing comments.