Realistic Planning Scenarios.

Abstract

The study examines the changes in international relations and in the behavior of the great powers that would be required to move the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. from their present stance of competition short of war to one of direct military conflict. While the study of course does not attempt to predict the future, it does isolate those key variables that will determine the evolution of the international environment and suggest internally consistent patterns into which these variables might develop. In this way, a war number of plausible alternative futures leading to U.S./Soviet war are constructed. These alternative futures can be used to test whether the U.S. defense posture is adequately robust to deal with the wide variety of potential challenges it may be asked to deter or defend against in the future.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 1987
Accession Number
ADA191640

Entities

People

  • Barry M. Blechman
  • Marc E. Smyrl
  • Victor A. Utgoff

Organizations

  • Institute for Defense Analyses

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Combat Areas
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Employment
  • Geography
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Law
  • International Relations
  • Military Organizations
  • National Governments
  • National Politics
  • Naval Operations
  • Personnel Management
  • Political Systems
  • Terrain
  • Topography
  • Treaties
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Strategic Security Studies
  • Theoretical Analysis.