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Annual Report to the President and the Congress.Over the past year America's armed forces continued to protect and advance the nation's interests throughout the world. Our accomplishments demonstrate that the U.S. military is strong, ready, and highly capable of meeting America's security needs. This Annual Defense Report details how the Department of Defense built its capabilities and is working to maintain them into the future. We have organized our task around three objectives. First, we want to prevent the reemergence of a post-Cold War nuclear threat by helping Russia and the other nuclear states of the former Soviet Union dismantle their nuclear weapons arsenals, and by developing effective means to counter the proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world. Second, we want to continue to manage the post-Cold War drawdown of our armed forces efficiently and effectively. We have carried out this drawdown while protecting the quality and morale of America's armed forces and sustaining the high readiness needed to ensure U.S. security. This is a historic accomplishment. Third, we want to be smart, deliberate, and clear on how America will use force or the threat of force effectively in this complex world. (MM)
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Making Riflemen from Mud: Restoring the Army's Culture of Irregular Warfare (CSL Student Issue Paper, Volume S01-07, Jul 2007)In the ongoing effort to both succeed in our current fights in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines, East Africa and elsewhere, and to continue the evolution of our doctrine and tactics to address upcoming threats, the Army must certainly look to the future. The Army must also, however, look to the past as well, to recapture some of those organizational strengths that have led to success in our long history of low-level conflict. One of these strengths was the institutionalized practice of working with and through local irregular military forces. This practice and the comfort and ease with which the Army at large followed it in the period prior to the Cold War need to be reclaimed Army-wide. The culture of irregular warfare - advising, liaison, training, leading and operating closely with local tribal levies, militias and other non-state forces - must be embraced by every part of the Army, and moved out of its current sole proprietorship in the Special Operations Command. This development is imperative now more than ever, given the limited number of Special Forces units and the demands currently being placed upon them - conventional units can, and must be able to conduct irregular operations wherever they are deployed. This paper will examine both the Army's historical practice of working with indigenous forces and auxiliaries, and the institutional training programs formerly in place designed to prepare officers and soldiers for roles as advisors, working with both irregular and regular forces. Using these examples, and discussing current operations and the debates surrounding incorporation of local irregular troops into those operations, I will recommend some steps that can and should be taken by the Army in order to restore the culture of generalized acceptance and facility in dealing with indigenous forces. This essay is not a call for establishment of an American "foreign legion," or units of "native" or "colonial" troops.
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Integrated Stability: Northeast Asian Security for the New MillenniumWith the end of the Cold War alignment paradigm, Asian states have lost, or perceive the threat of losing their political patrons. In lieu of traditional alliances, many states are embracing multilateral security arrangements. Placing an increased emphasis on economic security instead of military security. These states appear to be ranking economic development ahead of traditional security concerns. By focusing on economic growth, these nations would seem to be subordinating military security as a matter of foreign policy. To this end, nations in the region are increasingly viewing multilateral arrangements as a means to effect cooperative ventures. The Cold War strategies of nuclear deterrence, military predominance,and cooperation within the U.N. and within other bilateral alliances no longer adequately address America's national interests. In the rapidly evolving security environment, the United States is called upon to reaffirm these interests and to formulate additional policies to meet the challenge of a rapidly changing international environment. The need for a nuclear deterrent continues. The end of the Cold War and the budgetary restraints of the United States calls for a limited downsizing of American military capabilities. The increasing importance of economic factors in the security equation, particularly the proliferation of transnational organizations, shows clearly the need for a greater degree of multilateralization-both in political and economic activities. The United States watches closely the proliferation of multilateral institutions in North America, Europe, Northeast and Southeast Asia.