Organizing for Victory

Abstract

Since the end of the Korean War, all of Americas conventional campaigns have ended in a matter of weeks, sometimes even days, with overwhelming victories and few if any friendly casualties. Nation-building, counterinsurgency, and postconflict reconstruction, on the other hand, have always proved much more time-consuming, expensive, and problematic. One reason for this disjunction is that the U.S. Government is well structured for peace or war, but ill adapted for missions that fall in between. In both peace and conventional war, each agency knows its place. Coordination among them, while demanding, does not call for endless improvisation. By contrast, nation-building, stability operations, counterinsurgency, and irregular warfare all require that agencies collaborate in ways they are not accustomed to. These missions are consequently among the most difficult for any President to direct precisely because administrations are not structured for that purpose.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2009
Accession Number
AD1042860

Entities

People

  • James Dobbins

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Asymmetric Warfare
  • Civil War
  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of State
  • Governments
  • Interagency Coordination
  • International Organizations
  • Law
  • Military Training
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Security
  • Stability Operations
  • United States
  • War
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.
  • Systems Analysis and Design