General Purpose Ground Forces: What Purpose?
Abstract
"New World Order," a phrase uttered frequently by former President George Bush during and after the Persian Gulf War, no longer connotes the optimism of America's global view at the end of Desert Storm. The phrase continues to appear in national security and foreign policy speeches and essays, but is now bracketed by quotation marks to express either despair or cynicism. The warm glow of a much heralded Cold War victory, plus the Gulf War triumph, the growth of democracy in developing countries, and the apparent unipolar U.S. domination of the world scene are now matched by the colder realities of ethnic warfare, African famine, economic recession, and new doubts about the United Nations' effectiveness as international arbiter and peacekeeper. While the American people digest CNN's daily diet of widespread global misery and discord and grapple with the nation's response options, a new administration seeks to remain engaged internationally while coming to terms with huge budget deficits and domestic economic priorities. In the midst of this tar pit sits the Department of Defense with shrinking resources, expanding missions, and a very unsettled political climate. The public's and, to some extent, the Congress's view of this boils down to a discussion of dollars and manpower. Most visibly and immediately affected by the wide-ranging proposals for defense drawdown and restructuring are general purpose forces-air wings, Marine regiments, Army divisions, and the Navy's surface combatant ships. This essay examines a subset of this combat capability: general purpose ground forces (Army and Marine). The author will attempt to place the current debate in its appropriate geopolitical, domestic, and military strategy contexts and then offer ideas focused on mid-term (10 years) ground force missions and structure.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 06, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA441096
Entities
People
- Dan Challis
Organizations
- National War College