Decisive Force and the National Security Strategy.
Abstract
The National Military Strategy defines decisive force as, "The commitment of sufficient military power to overwhelm an adversary, establish new military conditions, and achieve a political resolution favorable to U.S. national interests". It is becoming increasingly evident that decisive force means many things to many people. Unfortunately, military leaders must decide how to define, quantify, and measure "decisive force" as it pertains to the national military strategy. Therefore, this paper seeks to answer the question, "decisive force to do what?" For the near future, on the high end of the spectrum, as far as difficulty is concerned, decisive force is linked to two Major Theater Wars (MTWs), while on the low end, it could be applied to multiple peace operations. For the foreseeable future, the two MTWs strategy will remain a feature of the National Military Strategy, and National Security Strategy will continue to stress "engagement". This suggests a second question, one of strategy versus capabilities. Is there a mismatch?
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 21, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA363834
Entities
People
- Deborah A. Rogers
Organizations
- United States Army War College