Terminating America's Wars: The Gulf War and Kosovo

Abstract

This thesis asks two questions: 1) What factors have contributed to the termination of recent United States wars? and 2) How can elements of national power be applied successfully to terminate the future wars of the United States? To answer these questions, this thesis offers a model of war termination and applies it to cases of war termination, in the Gulf War and in Kosovo. These case studies indicate that termination of future wars will be affected by the large military power of the United States and the probable short duration of future wars. With these conditions in mind, the United States must maintain cohesive military coalitions, attack the internal power positions of enemy leadership, and coordinate all elements of national power military, diplomatic and economic. In addition to identifying political objectives in future wars, the United States ought to also clearly define its desired end state so that the elements of national power are applied to a sustained peace rather than a short-term fix.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA405986

Entities

People

  • William G. Musser

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Air Defense
  • Case Studies
  • Civil War
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Economic Sanctions
  • Geography
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • National Security
  • Recreation
  • Sociopolitics
  • Treaties
  • United States
  • United States Central Command
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Asian Economic Studies
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies
  • Systems Analysis and Design