After Two Wars: Reflections on the American Strategic Revolution in Central Asia

Abstract

Since September 11, 2001, the United States has fought two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In these wars, the United States has accomplished or more precisely revealed a strategic revolution. Most notably, U.S.-led coalitions sustained forces in Central Asia and the Caucasus over an extended period by sea and air for the rst time in history. Thus, American leaders and commanders revealed that the new military capabilities hitherto associated with the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) could be deployed anywhere in the world, that U.S. forces would and could be optimized for global power projection capabilities, and that new theaters like Central Asia were of considerable strategic importance to Washington. Their actions rejected a parallel to the ongoing Revolution in Strategic Affairs (RSA) that reaformed the importance of that area as a potential theater of strategic operations (a term taken originally from Soviet military thought).

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 2005
Accession Number
ADA435961

Entities

People

  • Stephen J. Blank

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Central Asia
  • Combat Areas
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Geography
  • Globalization
  • Interagency Coordination
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Nato
  • Terrorists
  • Ussr
  • Warfare

Readers

  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Strategic Security Studies