Military Adaptation in Complex Operations
Abstract
The U.S. military today is engaged globally in the most demanding set of combat and stability tasks seen in over a generation--a host of challenges that have been called complex operations. The military faces these challenges side by side with its partners in the diplomatic and development communities--the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)--as well as a myriad of other interagency and international partners. Such operations demand integrated whole-of-government approaches to address the vexing problems of instability, insurgency, terrorism, and irregular warfare. Unfortunately, these requirements bear scant resemblance to the worldview of military and security experts just 10 years ago. This new set of requirements has challenged the fundamentals of how the U.S. military operates in the world?from an outlook where some in the past argued, "We don't do windows" to an approach where others today may contend, "We own it all." Inherent in this tension is the overarching question of the purpose of military forces in a world much different from the 20th century. Do militaries now exist simply to deter conflict and fight nations' wars when deterrence fails? Or in an age of transnational terrorism, nonstate actors, and irregular warfare, do larger purposes obtain? Is our present era truly a generational spell of "persistent conflict"? And if so, how does the military leverage its substantial capacity to contribute effectively to what has become unalterably a whole-of-government fight? Finally, can the military move beyond the core of its conventional warfare culture to grasp the deeper security needs of this era and truly deliver on the massive security investment that it represents in ways relevant to this century? These challenges are worthy of deep debate, and the consequences of error will be severe.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA521838
Entities
People
- David W. Barno
Organizations
- National Defense University