MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- Winning battles requires tactical expertise. Shaping national strategy requires something more — a deep understanding of history, politics and risk.
At Air University’s School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, officers spend a year studying those disciplines to better understand how political objectives translate into military strategy and long-term decisions about force employment.
For U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Cameron Berlin, a SAASS student, the program offered a chance to step back from the pace of operational assignments and think more carefully about the relationship between political guidance and military power.
“You might make a decision here in the near term that seems to buy down risk,” Berlin said. “But you might just be moving that risk into the future. That’s where strategic patience comes into play, knowing when to act and when not to act.”
Before arriving at SAASS, Berlin spent years working in intelligence assignments focused on reducing uncertainty for commanders. In those roles, the emphasis was often on providing information that could support immediate decisions.
“At the tactical and operational levels, you’re helping clarify threats, refine targets and support the next move,” she said.
Over time, Berlin began to realize that while those efforts reduced uncertainty in the moment, she had rarely stepped back to examine the larger questions behind those decisions: why wars are fought, how political goals translate into military strategy and whether airpower has consistently produced the political outcomes leaders intend.
Before coming to SAASS, Berlin attended the Joint All-Domain Strategists program at Air Command and Staff College and later stayed on to help administer the course.
“In JADS, we talked about operational design and how to be a good designer of strategy,” Berlin said. “There’s strategy at all levels — strategic, operational and tactical. It’s not just a single operation but a strategy that lasts over time, and I realized I had a lot of gaps in my knowledge.”
That realization pushed her to pursue deeper study.
At SAASS, Berlin said she quickly discovered that strategy requires more than refining operational plans. The program challenges students to test assumptions, debate ideas and examine historical case studies that reveal how political goals, military capabilities and risk interact over time.
Her intelligence background gave her a strong understanding of operational realities and adversary behavior. What it did not fully provide, she said, was experience interpreting political intent or aligning military capabilities with long-term strategic objectives.
“Many officers are very good at executing missions,” Berlin said. “But fewer are trained to connect policy with capability across time and risk.”
The program’s emphasis on history also helped reframe experiences from earlier assignments. While serving in an Air Operations Center, Berlin said she often saw competition over resources, airspace and authorities among different parts of the joint force.
At SAASS, she began to see those tensions differently.
“The historical perspective is important because it allows you to predict, harmonize and reduce friction in the future,” Berlin said. “You start to see the same themes repeat.”
SAASS is one of several programs at Air University focused on preparing officers to think more deliberately about the relationship between political goals and military action. The school’s curriculum draws heavily on history, theory and strategic analysis to help officers better understand how decisions made today can shape risk years into the future.
After graduation, Berlin will move to A5/7 Strategy at Headquarters Air Force. There, she will work on issues related to strategy, force design and modernization, helping translate national security priorities into Air Force planning.
“Lt. Col. Berlin has been an excellent classmate, leader and friend,” said Maj. Daniel Hayes, a SAASS student. “She has been critical to our class as a link to leadership and has been a great example of the virtues we expect from our leaders.”
Hayes said the relationships built at SAASS often continue well beyond the program as graduates move into planning and strategy roles across the Air Force.
Berlin often refers to what strategist Colin S. Gray called the “strategy bridge” — the idea that strategy links political purpose with military power. For Berlin, the concept helps explain the type of work she hopes to do after leaving Maxwell.
At Headquarters Air Force, senior leaders must constantly weigh global posture, force design and long-term risk. Political leaders define national objectives, but military planners must translate those objectives into capabilities and decisions about how forces are organized and employed.
Berlin sees her intelligence background and SAASS education as complementary. Years spent reducing uncertainty sharpened her understanding of operational realities. SAASS added another layer — a way to step back, question assumptions and consider the second- and third-order effects of strategic decisions.
“Step one: slow down,” Berlin said. “SAASS has really forced me to analyze things from multiple perspectives instead of stopping at the first explanation or narrative.”
For Berlin, the experience has been less about earning another degree and more about changing how she approaches complex problems.
At Headquarters Air Force, she said, the goal will not simply be to provide information for decisions. Instead, it will be helping leaders think through when risk should be accepted, when it should be reduced and when pushing it into the future may carry consequences far beyond the battlefield.