An emerging U.S. grand strategy--the promotion of democracy and freedom abroad--will certainly involve the U.S. armed forces. Although they must change to meet changes in emphasis and demand, theycannot risk their historic strengths. Some areas of interest are the organization and employment of forces, planning for future conflicts, developing information resources, and fostering partnerships among the services and with allies.
In January 2005, George W. Bush committed the nation to the extraordinary goal of "ending tyranny in our world." Since then, there has been a storm of debate in the United States and abroad about the appropriateness of this goal as a motivating factor for U.S. foreign policy. To the extent that Americans equate "ending tyranny" with toppling hostile regimes, as in Iraq, and replacing them with new forms of representative government, they are divided on the issue and increasingly suspicious of the prospects for success. But to the extent that Americans see "ending tyranny" as a broader, long-term response to the challenges posed by terrorism rooted in radical interpretations of Islam and the proliferation of destruction, a consensus seems to be emerging that this is an appropriate strategy for the nation and its allies. Should this broader strategy be sustained, it will have far-reaching effects on the institutions of the U.S. Government. This monograph explores the implications of this strategy and of key factors shaping the international security environment for the Department of Defense (DoD). The authors focused on DoD for two key reasons. First, the armed forces of the United States have been used to spearhead this new strategy, and they have achieved important successes. But it is also clear that, in several instances, U.S. armed forces are being called on to perform missions that are well outside their normal repertoire. If these missions represent a more permanent set of demands on the armed forces, more lasting changes need to be considered. Second, DoD is again involved in a major review of strategy, which follows on the recent Quadrennial Defense Review. This review and the period of implementation that will follow it offer the administration the opportunity to consider anew the demands of the international security environment, missions assigned to the armed forces, proper emphasis among those missions, and allocation of resources allotted to them.
On December 4, 2007, leading practitioners and analysts in the U.S. defense community conferred on possible approaches to meeting America's future security challenges. Many noted that these challenges, coupled with demands on the military forces, will require significant changes in how the Department of Defense trains, equips, and postures its forces and in how the U.S. government is organized for the advancement of U.S. interests abroad.
This volume discusses the current trend of globalization and the main characteristics of world order, focusing specifically on the destiny of the nation state, the threat against human rights, and conflicts between unilateral hegemony of the USA and Europe. It examines the contemporary European experience and compares it with Asian reality with a view to implications for the future development of Asia. It also discusses regional integration as a framework for bringing stable peace, exploring detailed principles and specific forms of a regional community in Asia. Contributors from Europe and Asia critically review previous literature on this topic and suggest new theoretical and empirical grounds of regional community in Asia. The book takes the viewpoint of comparative civilization and experiences of European integration to offer meaningful lessons for the future of nation states and the possibility of building regional communities in Asia.
Escalation is a natural tendency in any form of human competition, and today's security environment demands that the United States be prepared for a host of escalatory threats. This analysis of escalation dynamics and approaches to escalation management draws on a range of historical examples from World War I to the struggle against global Jihad to inform escalation-related decisionmaking.
One of the most pressing policy challenges for Australia and Japan today is ensuring that China’s rise does not threaten the stability of the Asia-Pacific, while also avoiding triggering conflict with their largest trading partner. This book examines how Australian and Japanese perceptions of US primacy shape their respective views of the Asia-Pacific regional order, the robustness of Asia’s alliance system, and the future of Australia-Japan security cooperation.
"When appropriate, the U.S. Air Force needs to be prepared to supply joint task force (JTF) headquarters. If the U.S. Air Force takes the steps necessary to produce JTF-capable units, both the service and the nation would benefit. The authors consider the nature of JTF command, survey command-related developments in other services and in other elements of the defense community, and examine four JTF operations. They raise issues for the Air Force to consider and offer a set of recommendations aimed at enhancing the Air Force's ability to staff and run JTF headquarters."--Provided by publisher.
It Takes More than a Network presents a structured investigation of the Iraqi insurgency's capacity for and conduct of organizational adaptation. In particular, it answers the question of why the Iraqi insurgency was seemingly so successful between 2003 and late 2006 and yet nearly totally collapsed by 2008. The book's main argument is that the Iraqi insurgency failed to achieve longer-term organizational goals because many of its organizational strengths were also its organizational weaknesses: these characteristics abetted and then corrupted the Iraqi insurgency's ability to adapt. The book further compares the organizational adaptation of the Iraqi insurgency with the organizational adaptation of the Afghan insurgency. This is done to refine the findings of the Iraq case and to present a more robust analysis of the adaptive cycles of two large and diverse covert networked insurgencies. The book finds that the Afghan insurgency, although still ongoing, has adapted more successfully than the Iraqi insurgency because it has been better able to leverage the strengths and counter the weaknesses of its chosen organizational form.
U.S. Air Force (USAF) global posture—its overseas forces, facilities, and arrangements with partner nations—faces a variety of fiscal, political, and military challenges. This report seeks to identify why the USAF needs a global posture, where it needs basing and access, the types of security partnerships that minimize peacetime access risk, and the amount of forward presence that the USAF requires.
The Air Force faces a challenging environment as it devises an approach to managing security cooperation with partner countries. The important mission of countering terrorist and insurgent groups abroad requires working closely with allies and partner countries to strengthen security. Accordingly, current U.S. defense strategy emphasizes that the U.S. armed forces should do more to work "by, with, and through partners" to accomplish missions.
