U.S. National Security Policy. Revision.
Abstract
This essay is intended to survey the basic framework within which the United States will make national security decisions in the year 2010, focusing especially on American orientation toward the Atlantic (Europe) or the Pacific (Asia). Such a task for projecting the international environment some 30 years into the future is an intrinsically speculative intellectual exercise. The idea of this essay is that the existing international environment will more likely than not continue to be the pattern in 2010 -- primarily because of the constraints established by the existence of nuclear weapons and the probable continuance of the U.S.-Soviet rivalry as the central factor in world politics. This suggests that the relative importance which the United States has given to the Atlantic/Europe and the Pacific/Asia since 1945 will not shift dramatically. Section III then examines circumstances which might bring about a significant change or revolution in world politics by 2010, and the impact that this situation might have on the Atlantic-Pacific equation. This situation has two important implications for the USN and the associated U.S. power projection forces. First, in terms of their contribution to the central U.S. alliance system, they should develop the followthrough for the defeat of the Red Fleet that will remain their overriding objective. Second, in terms of its contribution to the peripheral U.S. alliance system, the USN should refine its ability to fight and win limited conflicts.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1986
- Accession Number
- ADA166312