U.S. Marine Corps International Military Standardization and the Rebalance to the Pacific
Abstract
This essay assesses the Marine Corps' participation in international military standardization (IMS) by considering two questions: First, do the Marine Corps' current NATO-centric efforts properly effect its interests among NATO partner nations? Second, to support the strategic rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region, does the Marine Corps need to adjust or improve its standardization efforts in that region? The essay asserts that, considered as a whole, the Marine Corps' engagement with IMS appears to be enough for the task. Including in the Asia-Pacific region, the Marine Corps' current IMS program is evidently a properly-prioritized use of resources, selectively leveraging the efforts of other services, with the appropriate amount of input from user-level experts. The current Marine Corps process for formal IMS, despite its NATO-focused preponderance of effort, is adequate to fulfill the interoperability needs of the Marine Corps even as it rebalances to the Asia-Pacific region. This essay recommends one improvement to Marine Corps IMS: Consider establishing a process to assess Marine Corps doctrinal publications to determine if new multinational (NATO) doctrine ought to be initiated.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 18, 2014
- Accession Number
- AD1181357
Entities
People
- Frederic R. Neubert
Organizations
- Marine Corps University