Operations Other Than War: Send in the Reserves
Abstract
At the end of the Cold War, the United States conducted a drawdown of our military forces. Unfortunately, the pace of operations increased a great deal during the decade of the 1990's and then accelerated even further with the beginning of the Global War on Terrorism. The strain that is currently being placed on the Army is bringing that organization dangerously close to its breaking point whereby it will no longer be capable of fulfilling all that the country asks of it. In short, we must either curb our country's appetite for conducting expeditions or increase the available troops for deployment. A third option that must be examined is the revamping of the Reserve and National Guard forces in order to use these assets more effectively and efficiently. A change in the paradigm under which our Reserve Components were designed occurred with the fall of the Soviet Empire. However, the military was slow to realize this shift and adjust its force structure, training, and doctrine accordingly. The Persian Gulf War of 1991 served to invalidate the concept of deploying combat units from the Reserve and National Guard to conduct high-intensity combat operations. However, during the 1990's, the reserves proved more than capable of performing peacekeeping operations as well as humanitarian assistance missions. With the Global War on Terrorism being the long war, it is time our nation begins to take a closer look at the current force structure of our National Guard and Reserves. These service members must be used in the most efficient means possible. The structure of the reserves has to be adjusted for the War on Terrorism. While high-intensity combat operations will still be conducted by our armed forces, the most significant demand on our manpower for the Global War on Terrorism will be operations other than war. High-intensity conflict is defined as operations other than humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping, peace enforcement or stability and support/rebuilding.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 14, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA480429
Entities
People
- Scott W. Kelly
Organizations
- National Defense University