Strategic Thinking in an Era of Intervention. Thinking Out of a Box With No Sides
Abstract
The post-Cold War era may well turn out to be the Era of Intervention, for the capability to intervene has been taken to a new level. A growing array of tools allows small groups (both state and non-state actors) to achieve devastating destruction within a nation's borders. These new weapons, permitting the few to threaten the many, are relatively low-tech, but exceedingly difficult to detect, monitor and control. An actual use of biological, chemical, or information weapons would be quite difficult to trace to their source. This makes a strategy of deterrence a weak reed. Concurrently, the United Nations is increasingly inclined to establish a military presence on the ground inside national borders. While these missions are for peacekeeping, peacemaking, starvation prevention. genocide prevention, and a host of other humanitarian tasks--and are not necessarily "imposed" against a nation's will--they are, nevertheless, interventions. The net result is that now, more than at any time since the Treaty of Westphalia, borders are no impediment to intervention. Consequently, the strategic realm has drastically changed. In a world no longer set in a two-piece mold, the United States is--with or without the complicity of the international community--the actor who sets the terms of interaction. This reality requires careful consideration of the ensuing strategic implications. Otherwise, the new hierarchy will bring more vulnerability than opportunity, with the United States' advantage slowly decaying, thus opening the door to a world where anarchy reigns.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA442899
Entities
People
- John Richardson
Organizations
- National War College