The End of Decisive Military Force: Are the Principles of War Still Relevant
Abstract
Globalization is an unstoppable force of change that is greatly affecting human civilization and existence. Advances in technology, world population distribution trends, and competition for finite resources are but a few of the forces that are making our world smaller, more interdependent, and in greater cultural contact. One military consequence of these trends is that U.S. political leaders and operational military commanders can expect coalition warfare to characterize most future military conflicts. Additionally, coalition restraints may prevent operational commanders from applying decisive military force as is currently articulated in joint doctrine and is implicit in the longstanding U.S. principles of war. Specifically, the application of concentrated, decisive, lethal force in the form of airpower, despite its proven effectiveness, may be unlikely as an initial course of action in future conflicts. Divergent national political objectives within future coalitions may simply not allow an initial application of overwhelming combat power until previous gradual and incremental military measures have been tried and failed. The recent NATO experience in Operation Allied Force was an apparent victory for airpower but a victory in which airpower was applied gradually and incrementally, a manner inconsistent with existing doctrine. Idealistic U.S. joint doctrine which endorses the use of operational art to guide the application of overwhelming combat power using an analysis of decisive points and centers of gravity, while valuable as a philosophical foundation of unrestrained warfare, may have less utility in alliance and coalition application.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 08, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA378454
Entities
People
- S. R. Roth
Organizations
- Naval War College