The Snake-eaters Might Want One Too

Abstract

We can win the "hot war." We can out-shoot, out-move, and out-communicate any force lined up against us. In stark contrast, success during shaping operations and post conflict reconstruction is often met with abject indifference. We are the best organized, best trained, best equipped, and best educated killing machine the world has ever seen. We are exceptionally good at our core capability. We are not, however, adept at nation building; Security, Stabilization, Transition, and Reconstruction (SSTR) or coalition building. We must get better. The importance of interagency coordination, the complexity of operations, and the need for clearer guidance and directives has been recognized for nearly a century. Codifying the progress that has been made to date and expanding upon the successes will require legislative action of the Goldwaters-Nichols variety.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 30, 2006
Accession Number
ADA463630

Entities

People

  • Karl Hackbarth

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Afghanistan Conflict
  • Combatant Commanders
  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of State
  • Directives
  • Governments
  • Interagency Coordination
  • Law
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure
  • Security
  • United States
  • United States Central Command
  • United States Government
  • United States Northern Command
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.