Reshaping conventional capabilities

Jaume Fuster, Daniel H. Layton, Stephen H. Strom, Robert M. Young, William G. Foster, John F. Kennedy School of Government. National Security Program

The United States, as the pre-eminent national power in the world today, must continue to develop strategies for the employment of military force. The continued relevance of military force in the support of national objectives should be more apparent today than even a short time ago. Implementing change will be difficult. Barriers to change must be identified and overcome. Maintaining individual service charters within a joint operational framework must continue to progress. However, some factors will not change. Superiority over the sea and air access routes continues (in the absence of nuclear war) to be vital to the basic survival of the nation. Yet, global naval superiority, critical in crisis management and in long--term conflicts, is less relevant to the prosecution of mid-intensity intensity armed regional engagements. Coalitions in regions where we have interests will continue...