Permanent Preeminence: U.S. Strategic Policy for the 21st Century
Klare, Michael T.
Observers of the August 2000 Republican and Democratic Party conventions who hoped to glean some insight into current U.S. thinking on military policy were sorely disappointed. Neither of the two...
...2 5 t the lowest layer of combat-in the plains surrounding the high and medium peaks-the United States seeks to maintain a minimum degree of stability in order to avert massive humanitarian disasters and to permit a vigorous commerce in goods and services...
...See Klare, "An Anachronistic Policy: The Strategic Obsolescence of the Rogue Doctrine," Harvard International Review, Vol...
...We believe in Ameri- there is a d ca...
...This ongoing effort largely resides in the realm of technology: It is U.S...
...POLICY (which is the ultimate "high ground...
...Permanent Preeminence 1. Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, Prepared Statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Washington, D.C., February 3, 1998, electronic document accessed at <httpiJ/www.defenselink.mil:80/speeches/1998/t 9980203-secdef.html> on August 30, 2000...
...Typically, the It ic e n Ie Republicans said it was not, while the Democrats said that it was...
...The paramount axis of world politics," he suggested, "will be the relations between 'the West and the Rest...
...The New York Times, June 2, 1998...
...For discussion, see Diana Jean Schemo, "U.S...
...in place [the first generation being the limited, antiorces will retain the ability to rogue system favored by the Clinton Administration] r any future battlefield, Penta- with many of the weapons and sensors potentially ted to the introduction of two moving into space...
...This means, he said, that the United States must help the Europeans to cope with "all these ethnic upheavals on their border...
...According to a leaked version of the original draft of this document, it would be U.S...
...97-129...
...This aspect of U.S...
...By 2020, moreover, "a second generation en NATO forces chose to dis- system for National Missile Defense is expected to be ck altogether...
...2 The U.S...
...In one of his most revealing statements on that engagement, delivered at the AFSCME Convention in Washington, D.C...
...Here too, it is necessary to dig below the surface of declaratory policy...
...involvement should not be under- military power in smaller-scale contingency operaestimated: In Colombia, U.S...
...conventional in every a capabilities...
...4. Bill Clinton, "The Legacy of America's Leadership As We Enter the 21st Century," Address to the people of Detroit, Detroit, MI, October 22, 1996, U.S...
...Perhaps the clearest expression of this formula appears in the original 1992 text of the Defense Planning Guidance: "While the U.S...
...These disparities will become more pronounced in the years ahead, "exacerbating North-South and inter-regional tensions...
...2 7 If the DOD formula quoted above prevails, If applied vigorously and consistently, the strategy moreover, it is safe to assume that Washington will described above can succeed in maintaining U.S...
...41-68...
...interests and to maintain a necessary level of global stability...
...Robert D. Kaplan, The Ends of the Earth (New York: Random House, 1996...
...While senior officials have yet to agree on a standard designation for their favored approach, this does not mean that they lack a sense of direction or purpose...
...No matter what the level of external threat, military officials always emphasize the "worst-case scenario" in order to attract maximum budget support from Congress...
...The philosophical dimension of U.S...
...In later speeches, George W. Bush charged that the Clinton-Gore Administration had failed to maintain military preparedness at sufficiently elevated levels and was too quick to commit U.S...
...strategy would prefer to keep this discussion out of the public domain...
...3 (Summer 1993), pp...
...policymakers are trying to create a world that is relatively for U.S...
...policymakers are reluctant to spell out the 1 military dimensions of prevailing doctrine...
...precise, "real-time" information on enemy forces and movements...
...As suggested by the DOD in 2000, U.S...
...Furthermore, while current policy e F-22 air superiority fighter bars the deployment of offensive weapons in space, ed Joint Strike Fighter (JSF...
...72, No...
...foreign policy: "It's easy...to say that we really have no interests in who lives in this or that valley in Bosnia, or who owns a strip of brushland in the Horn of Africa, or some piece of parched earth by the Jordan River...
...While these 'threats and ave-nots challenges' are less significant indilenda of vidually than the global military hange...
...The question we must ask is, what are the consequences to our security of letting conflicts fester and spread...
...We trust America...
...weapons-and also seek to use space as a platform for ir initial missions to disabling attacks on future adversaries...
...policy to maintain a nuclear advantage over all potential adversaries...
...But there has been no debate over the underlying merits of this strategy-all that we have heard is the frequent reiteration of the "rogue state" threat and the undiminished requirement for a two-war capability...
...Although generals and admirals are notorious for consistently preparing to fight the last war over again, U.S...
...political and strategic priorities...
...Many challenging conditions encircled exist today and others will emerge over time...
...DOD, Annual Report 2000, p. 17...
...Although few details of this plan have been made public, the DOD has indicated that it is prepared to use nuclear weapons in retaliation not only for the use of nuclear weapons by a future adversary but also for the use of chemical and biological weapons-a principle that would appear to apply more to states like Libya, Syria and Iran (which are thought to possess chemical weapons but not nuclear weapons) than a future "peer competitor" like China or Russia...
...POLICY sis is also being placed on preserving the U.S...
...What it ence if the Colombian military were ever to face the cannot do is discourage potential challengers from risk of serious defeat or wholesale collapse...
...The author first described this policy in "The Clinton Doctrine," The Nation, April 19, 1999...
...One quarter of the world's population (the developed world) controls nearly 80% of today's wealth and consumes the great majority of the world's resources...
...policymakers prefer to delegate any military activities involved to other parties-notably to regional organizations, local 14NMIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 14 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASREPORT ON U.S...
...forces...
...1 4 Lest there was any doubt about his intentions, Clinton reaffirmed this principle four weeks later, when authorizing U.S...
...policy to spend SStates seeks only a limited whatever is required to remain a generation or two ed exclusively at the "rogue" ahead of all other powers in the introduction of ever, that U.S...
...But where our values and our interests are at stake, and where we can make a difference, we must be prepared to do so...
...And it was on this basis that the Base Force concept received strong support in Washington...
...But it would be a mistake to conclude from this that all senior policymakers are stuck in the past, and that no thinking on national strategy has yet emerged...
...political .gic priorities...
...This is embrace partly due to a certain amount of awkwardness on their part: Most leaders and stratE prefer to talk about the enemies we are compelled to defend against--of which none can now be identified-rather than about Washington's own pursuit of global dominance...
...Hence to prevent and contain localized conflicts and crises the Pentagon's continuing commitment to a two-war before they require a military response...
...22-49...
...interest in Kosovo and to focus instead on the purely humanitarian aspects of the U.S./NATO interVOL XXXIV, No 3 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2000 11 0 0 5: VoL XXXIV, No 3 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2000 11REPORT ON U.S...
...But almost every politician, including Bush, would agree that the United States has the right to employ military force when it chooses to do so-and that any such usage is, by definition, a legitimate expression of the USA's inherent (and, some would say, God-given) superiority...
...Officially, the existing U.S...
...The long-range mobility forces United States...
...As major power can easily be used to deal with a lesser articulated by the DOD, the SSCO function is con- threat...
...2 2 Between the high peaks and the surrounding plains lie the middle ranges, where the United States confronts aspiring regional powers like Iraq, Iran and North Korea...
...83-98 and 131-132...
...Is to Help Army in Colombia Fight Drugs but Skeptics Abound," The New York Times, October 25, 1997...
...des This model, originally called the "Base Force," was developed by General monol: Colin Powell (then Chairman of the critical Joint Chiefs of Staff) in late 1989, just days after the fall of the Berlin Wall...
...Schemo, "Bogoth Aid: To Fight Drugs or Rebels...
...Indeed, George W. Bush underscored his opposition to such operations during the October 2000 Presidential debates...
...superior tactical air capabilities...
...2 6 now governs U.S...
...For the most part, it is a strategy that enjoys near-unanimous support the United States would prefer to remain largely incon- from both sides in Washington...
...strategists speak of their desire to "shape the international security environment in ways favorable to U.S...
...Indeed, the To prepare for such contingencies, the Department very arrogance of U.S...
...strategy is designed to Future...
...drug traffic nuclear arsenal...
...7. See Barton Gellman, "Pentagon Abandons Goal of Thwarting U.S...
...second, the high peaks, where the United States may someday encounter a wellequipped "peer competitor...
...The control of space is has the luxury of downsizing its current military estabs to build a full-scale National lishment while concentrating on the development of system and to develop even future capabilities...
...Some of these requirements are satisfied by the capabilities needed for the upper layers of defense: air combat forces, battlefield surveillance, precision-guided munitions and so forth...
...3 But there is a philosophical underpinning to the prevailing U.S...
...commitment to permanent global preeminence has two key aspects: a philosophical or ideological dimension, having to do with the validation of policy...
...f control the air space ove gon officials are commit new combat aircraft: th and the ultra-sophisticat The Pentagon is also pla opment of advanced air area of space warfare, Department is determine By maintaining a mono battlefield surveillance forces will be able to track moment and to bring s lucrative targets-while capabilities to its advers also linked to U.S...
...For background and discussion, see Klare, Rogue States and Nuclear Outlaws (New York: Hill and Wang, 1995), pp...
...Probably the most demandU.S...
...Drug War," Dallas Morning News, February 27, 2000...
...monopolize those critical elements of military power that will enable U.S...
...In his widely discussed (and criticized) 1993 essay in Foreign Affairs, "The Clash of Civilizations," Huntington argued that the wealth and power of the West will provoke increasing levels of envy and hostility from non-Western peoples, especially in the Middle East and Asia...
...and a purely military dimension, having to do with the organization, disposition, and employment of U.S...
...In addition, most contemporary leaders seem to lack the capacity or the inclination to issue sweeping political pronouncements of the sort once delivered by Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill...
...POLICY In seeking global preeminence, U.S...
...Nevertheless, faced w the United States retains a large and powerful array of nuclear munitions, and it is U.S...
...defense policy is the belief that U.S...
...If our country is going to be prosperous and secure," he explained, "we need a Europe that is safe, secure, free, united, a good partner with us for trading...
...elites have yet to reach full agreement on certain key aspects of strategy, such as whether to view China as a potential adversary or a major trading partner...
...On the role of civilian contractors, see Tod Robberson, "Contractors Playing Increasing Role in U.S...
...In the uppermost layer, air and space, U.S...
...We want that we ar America to lead...
...policy to "maintain the mechanisms for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role...
...9. Vice-Adm...
...13 Although not recognized as such at the time, this was an implicit call for U.S...
...This revolution promises to enable our forces to attack enemy weaknesses directly and with great precision," said Defense Secretary William S. Cohen in 1998.21 For the most part, the Revolu- In Colombia tion in Military Affairs and related initiatives are aimed at and technicia enhancing U.S...
...Even wide missile defense, and the potential to apply force aced on air supremacy during from space...
...hegemony ck enemy movements at every on roughly equal terms and, if need be, to overpower uperior firepower to bear on such a competitor in battle...
...That is, we are told that the United States must act to control chaos in relatively unimportant places (like, say, the Balkans) or we risk its spread to places that really matter to us (like Western Europe...
...seeking chinks in the Pentagon's armor...
...What is needed, however, is a sufficiently large strued as follows: "In general, the United States, along and robust military establishment, permitting U.S...
...Thomas R. Wilson, "Military Threats and Security Challenges Through 2015," Statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Washington, D.C., February 3, 2000, electronic document accessed at http:/lwww.dia.miVlsascbrief.html on March 6, 2000...
...If there is any disspicuous, providing aid and training to military and agreement between leaders of the two parties, it is over police forces of friendly governments, while leaving tactical matters, such as how much to spend on a parthe fighting to others...
...combat pres- tary supremacy for a very long time to come...
...As noted, current Pentagon policy calls for the maintenance of sufficient military strength to prevail in two regional conflicts at the same time...
...None of these, by e e h g c itself, is claimed to pose a threat on the scale of the former Soviet Union, but the aggregate of these forces is said to represent a threat of nearly equal magnitude...
...Before proceeding further, it is hosp important to recognize that U.S...
...5 by angry There are, of course, many in with an a Washington and the rest of the radical country who are concerned about the burdens of leadership, particularly when these entail the commitment of U.S...
...security "requires the maintenance of nuclear forces sufficient to deter any potential adversary from using or threatening to use nuclear, chemical, or biological (NBC) weapons against the United States or its allies, and as a hedge against defeat of U.S...
...strategists envi- advanced weapons and combat systems...
...Department of Defense (DOD), Annual Report 2000 (Washington, D.C.: DOD, 2000), p. 13...
...No one who has listened to political discourse in Washington over the past few years will have escaped the triumphalism that has come to pervade all discussion of international affairs...
...6. From the leaked text of the report in The New York Times, March 7, 1992...
...crises when it is in U.S...
...strategy--the pursuit of permaof Defense does not require a great deal of additional nent global preeminence-is likely to arouse hostility equipment, beyond that already committed to the other from those who have no natural complaint with the layers described above...
...advisors ing aspect of the two-war strat- egy is worldwide mobility...
...prosperity...
...1 9 however, that the Defense At the next highest level of warfare-the tall peaks d to make the greatest strides...
...We cannot, indeed, we should not, do everything or be everywhere...
...Officially, the United NMD system, one aime states...
...forces and to blind, confuse and outmaneuver future adversaries...
...and an overwhelming advantage in conventional firepower...
...power that In pursuit of permanent global able U.S...
...global preeminence in the stable twenty-first century...
...Military Elite: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, photographed in a Pentagon room known as "The Tank, "July 1999...
...DOD, Annual Report 2000, p. 6. 27...
...s with the philosophical aspects of strategy, U.S...
...nevertheless, the basic principle has remained embedded in U.S...
...There is, of course, no such systematically denying such competitor currently in sight, and so the United States aries...
...There is a corollary to this proposition, and it plays a critical role in the formation of strategy: a belief that only the United States is entitled to occupy this exalted status, and that all other states must therefore be discouraged and prevented from contemplating such a position...
...damental questions regarding national strategy...
...With this perspective in mind, it is but a short step to the third and final component of the U.S...
...And, indeed, there are many senior Pentagon and defense contractor personnel who can be characterized in this fashion...
...2 0 In discussing this aspect of strategy, Pentagon officials often speak of the "Revolution in Military Affairs" (RMA), a term borrowed from Soviet military theory...
...preeminence, the Department of prevail on Defense (DOD) has adopted a basic strategy that can best be aginable termed "Secure and Hold the d, now and Commanding Heights...
...And America must lead...
...Given that most other politicians have also avoided matters of substance when it comes to discussion of strategy, and that the Pentagon itself has been notably vague on the subject, it is not surprising that outsiders often experience great difficulty in grasping the overall thrust of U.S...
...But the true measure of our interests lies not in how small or distant these places are, or in whether we have trouble in pronouncing their names...
...they're wealthy enough to buy our products...
...Indeed, most Pentagon officials view the two-war, antirategy is rogue policy as a convenient Fined to cover story for pursuing a far more sweeping and audacious olize those strategy-one that accords more lements of closely with the philosophical outlook described above...
...Typically, this principle is expressed as the need for a "hedge" against unforeseen dangers, as in the statement quoted above...
...However, Bush did not announce his support for the new strategic blueprint until August 2, 1990-the very day that Iraqi forces commenced their attack on Kuwait-and the plan was widely interpreted as a response to Iraqi aggression, not the disappearance of the Soviet threat...
...Like- world of growing chaos and hostility...
...global preeminence forever, or for so long as they can see into the future...
...POLICY The U.S...
...9 Lurking behind all of this are the bleak and fearful scenarios devised by such civilian analysts as Samuel P. Huntington and Robert D. Kaplan...
...Retaining the alpine imagery of "commanding heights," these four layers can be described as follows: first, the air and space above the battlefield 12 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 12REPORT ON U.S...
...3. U.S...
...Many foreign policy instruments, including diplomacy and trade, can be used to construct such a world, but force is sometimes required...
...But, as suggested by President Clinton's remarks of February and March 1999, the United States remains prepared to employ its own forces in police-type operations when vital interests are said to be at stake, or when there is fear that instability in peripheral regions will spill over into more important areas...
...It is in the tion of force from space is in our national interest...
...leaders, both then and now...
...Plans Big Aid Package to Rally a Reeling Colombia," The New York Times, September 15, 1999...
...Typically, this requirement is articulated by the DOD as follows: "As a global power with worldwide interests, it is imperative that the United States, now and for the foreseeable future, be able to deter and defeat nearly simultaneous large-scale, cross-border aggression in two distant theaters in overlapping time frames...
...Department of State Dispatch, October 21, 1996, p. 518, or <http//www.state.gov/www/regions/eur/102296clinton detroit.html> 5. Clinton, "The Legacy of America's Leadership," p. 521...
...It is safe colonial and developing Washington nations do not want a perma- t Washington nent U.S...
...cannot become the world's 'policeman,' assuming responsibility for righting every wrong, we will retain the preeminent responsibility for addressing selectively those wrongs which threaten not only our interests, but those of our allies or friends, or which could seriously unsettle international relations...
...In today's world, the "commanding heights" refers to the possession of superior firepower and information, allowing the dominant power to defeat its adversaries even if it possesses fewer troops and weapons...
...strategists...
...strategic thinking ever since...
...As noted by the United ir defense systems...
...In seeking global preeminence, U.S...
...It is very tempting to conclude from the lack of a vigorous public debate on military policy that U.S...
...effort Missile Defense (NMD) more exotic weapons...
...The most explicit expression of this principle was contained in the "Defense Planning Guidance for Fiscal Years 1994-1999," drafted in early 1992...
...8 To a certain degree, of course, this is simply part of the Pentagon's standard formula for securing high levels of funding...
...planning for the possibility is a purpose of this plan cing great stress on the devel- should our civilian leadership decide that the applicadefense systems...
...policymakers are acting from a belief that has long dominated foreign policy thinking in Washington: that the nation's vital interests are best served in a world that is relatively stable, openly hospitable to international capital, and generally predisposed to embrace U.S...
...strategy is often overshad- to assume th owed by all of the public discus- would supl sion of nuclear arms control and aid with nonproliferation...
...strategy should not, however, discourage us from mapping out its basic parameters...
...and third, a commitment to the use of military force to protect U.S...
...military intervention in Kosovo...
...Neither of the two major presidential candidates devoted more than a few minutes to military affairs in their nomination speeches, and much of what they did say was of the generic, "I will keep American forces strong" variety...
...There are times when only America can make the difference between war and peace, between freedom and repression, and between hope and fear...
...In expressing this view, Pentagon officials always begin by affirming that we have no intention of becoming the "world's policeman"-and then go on to call for a selective interventionist role for the United States...
...only when States Space Command in its Long-Range Plan, U.S...
...poli- internati cymakers have yet to agree on a stan- and c dard name or phrase for this strategy, and exhibit considerable difficulty in predi: articulating its components...
...The lack of a common name or phrase for U.S...
...combat power to the one thing it is supposedly designed to prevent: a Africa, Latin America, or other outlying areas...
...strategy calls for more than mere superiority: It essei effective combat power demonstrated during the forces devoted all of the Iraqi air bases and anti-a the United States enjoye Iraq and Kuwait did Gi order for the allied gr greater emphasis was pi the Kosovo conflict, wh pense with a ground attac To ensure that U.S...
...Nuclear Arsenal Is Poised for War-Is It the Right One...
...and someone who will share the burdens of taking care of the problems of the world...
...POLICY producing a sort of national religion...
...The Wall Street Joumrnal, October 15, 1999...
...It is true, moreover, that the U.S...
...In addition, U.S...
...So long as these matters remain unresolved, the architects of U.S...
...However difficult, it is possible to discern the outlines of a new military blueprint 8NMIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS C 0 a C 8 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASREPORT ON U.S...
...of superpower competition--current strategy calls for 'poly on the use of space for a combination of measures to prevent the emergence of and communications, U.S...
...interests are under assault from a variety of antagonistic forces...
...values and interests are under assault from a variety of forces around the world...
...Much is said about the need for this or that combat unit, military base or weapons system, but very little is communicated about the underlying rationale for all this...
...on March 23, Clinton tied the Kosovo upheaval to stability in Europe and continued U.S...
...wise, the air and space capabilities required to defeat a Nevertheless, the basic principle remains the same...
...Instead, we get instantly forgettable phrases like "a strategy of engagement and enlargement"-the official doctrine of the Clinton Administration...
...third, the foothills and lower peaks, wherein dwell the "rogue" states and other medium powers...
...Despite all of our wealth and power, these comments appear to suggest, the United States and its affluent European allies are encircled by angry havenots with an agenda of radical change...
...The group's Chairman, Army General Henry H. Shelton, is third from the right else...
...On this, there is absolutely no disagreement in Washington...
...interests...
...tary forces may be the best way to contain, resolve, or mitigate the consequences of a conflict that could oth- his, in brief, is the overarching framework that erwise become far more costly and deadly...
...4 Similar statements have been made by other senior officials and by members of both parties in Congress, 9 VOL XXXIV, No 3 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2000REPORT ON U.S...
...One can certainly question whether this strategic framework represents a realistic response to the actual, real-world threat environment...
...forces to prevail on any imaginable battlefield, now and in the future...
...strategic outlook: the belief that the United States bears a significant degree of responsibility for defending the existing, Western-dominated world order against the forces of hostility and chaos...
...7 The second basic component of the philosophy underlying U.S...
...Considerable opposition was voiced, for example, to the U.S...
...strategy, and it is important to tease it out...
...Indeed, many analysts (including this author) have challenged the credibility of the "rogue-state" paradigm.18 But that is not the point here...
...as "smaller-scale contingency operations" (SSCOs...
...military strategy...
...For an articulation of the Pentagon's views on this subject, see DOD, Annual Report2000, pp...
...Prepared statement of Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Washington, D.C., February 3, 1998...
...s regional conflicts at the same time...
...22, No...
...From this perspective, it mattered little who won (plus civilian contractors working for the DOD and the presidential election in November 2000-the same other government agencies) are involved in every strategy would prevail under George W. Bush or aspect of the military's campaign against drug traffick- Albert Gore...
...This is not a This would appear to be the formula governing U.S...
...policymakers lack a clear conception of strategy, and are simply determined to cling to Cold War modes of thought...
...As suggested by the Department of Defense in early 2000, "The United States must remain engaged as a global leader and harness the unmatched capabilities of its armed forces to shape the international security environment in favorable ways [and] respond to the full spectrum of e, openly itable to ional capital generally sposed to U.S...
...forces to combat in distant and unfamiliar parts of the world...
...problem posed by the former Soviet Union, collectively they present a formidable barrier to the emergence of a stable, secure, and prosperous international order...
...military As is evident from the record, Powell's will e sole purpose in constructing this model forces t was to produce a plausible rationale for maintaining a large military establish- any ir ment in the absence of a credible Soviet battlefi threat.' 6 Despite the reluctance of then Secre- in th tary of Defense Richard Cheney to abandon an anti-Soviet posture, the Powell plan was approved by the Bush Administration in May 1990 (three months before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait...
...For background on Powell's plans and motives, see Lorna S. Jaffe, The Development of the Base Force 1989-1992 (Washington, D.C.: Joint History Office, Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, July 1993...
...1 5 Clinton later chose to downplay this aspect of the U.S...
...intervention in any part of the world where local unrest is seen as a threat to stability in more important areas-an outlook I have described as the "Clinton Doctrine...
...But anyone who reads through these statements will detect a deeper anxiety...
...forces to United Nations peacekeeping operations, but he never raised any funMichael T. Klare is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., and author of Resource Wars: Global Geopolitics in the 21st Century (Metropolitan Books, forthcoming, 2001...
...and fourth, the surrounding plains, populated by small states and a multitude of ethnic, religious and sectarian factions...
...advantage in information warfare: the use of advanced sensors, computers, and jamming devices to maximize the combat effectiveness of U.S...
...To construct such a world, U.S...
...strategy is most thoroughly developed...
...interests to do so...
...Despite II of our our relative dominance," he told the d power, Senate Armed Services Committee, "the world remains a dangerous ep anxiety place...
...is are involved Because the United States canpect of the not afford to station forces in every area of possible conflict paign against (and, in any case, most ex:ers...
...The concept of "commanding heights" goes back to military operations in a less technologically advanced period-to the time of the bow and arrow and the flintlock musket-when military officers sought to capture and hold the high ground on any given battlefield in order to shoot down on enemy forces from a position of relative safety...
...strategists are well aware that a repeat performance of Operation Desert Storm is only one of many contingencies that they may have to face, and not necessarily the most likely one...
...Remarks by the President to AFSCME Biennial Convention, Washington, D.C., March 23, 1999," electronic document accessed at <http/Avwww.whitehouse.gov...
...For discussion, see Carla Anne Robbins, "Ultimate Threat: U.S...
...military establishment is governed by the need to prevail in two Desert Storm-like U.S...
...domination in each of four vertical layers of the global battlefield...
...interventions in Haiti, Somalia and Kosovo...
...23 To satisfy this formula, the military establishment requires a wide range of military assets: well-equipped I, n k a P e r it forces that can be moved quickly from bases in the United States to war zones abroad...
...It is in this area that U.S...
...Patrick M. Hughes, "Global Threats and Challenges," Prepared Statement, Senate Armed Services Committee, February 2, 1999, as circulated by the Federal News Service via Lexis-Nexis...
...Rivals," The Washington Post, May 24, 1992...
...1 2 (Like the earlier statement about deterring competitors from "even aspiring" to a superpower status, this statement was deleted from the final version of the Guidance document...
...2 (Summer 2000), pp...
...Growing disparities in global wealth and resource distribution" pose a significant threat to international stability, Admiral Thomas R. Wilson, the DIA's current director, testified in February 2000...
...The ultimate result of Washington's intended for a new conflict in the Middle East would unceasing pursuit of supremacy, therefore, could be work just as well in delivering U.S...
...46-51...
...1 0 Kaplan portrayed a different sort of nightmare-one in which overpopulation, resource scarcity, ethnic conflict and state collapse will produce spreading chaos in the developing world and threaten stability everywhere 10 NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 10 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASREPORT ON U.S...
...expanding its fleet of C-17 cargo planes and logistical ships and is also procuring new aircraft carriers, amphibious assault ships, and sea-based missile systems.24 Finally, the United States has set aside a certain percentage of its nuclear forces for possible use against the "rogue" states and other regional adversaries...
...Wherever I go, whomever I Despite talk with, the message to me is the wealth ar same," Clinton said of his foreign excursions...
...Although senior officials do share a sense of common purpose with respect to the use of military power, they are noticeably reluctant to spell it out, for the reasons given earlier...
...As I see it, this underpinning has three components: first and most significant, a belief in the fundamental rightness of the sole superpower status of the United States...
...2. U.S...
...significance of U.S...
...Remarks by the President on Foreign Policy, San Francisco, February 26, 1999," electronic document accessed at <httpi/Avwww/whitehouse.gov...
...This principle can be further elaborated to entail U.S...
...But other requirements-for rapid deployment, global mobility, and massed firepower-entail additional initiatives...
...Tim Golden and Steven Lee Myers, "U.S...
...National Security Council, A National Security Strategy of Engagement and Enlargement (Washington, D.C.: The White House, July 1994...
...Space Command, Long-Range Plan, electronic document accessed at <httpI/Aww.peterson.af.miVusspace/LRP/chO2.htm> on September 18, 2000...
...Defense Secretary William S. Cohen reviews an honor guard of the Colombian Army in to describe such activities Cartagena, November 1998...
...Samuel P. Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations...
...DOD, Annual Report 2000, p. 7. 24...
...conventional forces in defense of vital interests...
...interests are at risk, or when chaos in marginal areas threatens stability in regions considered essential to the effective functioning of the global economy, the United States must take action to eliminate the danger...
...That is, U.S...
...POLICY vention...
...For details of these programs, see DOD, Annual Report 2000, pp...
...These forces are said to include hostile Third World countries (usually described as "rogue states"), Islamic fundamentalism, revolutionary movements, terrorists and criminal syndicates...
...Indeed, their purpose is all too clear: to maintain U.S...
...Air Force version of the Joint Strike Fighter, the ultra-sophisticated new combat aircraft contracted to be built by Boeing...
...Characteristic of this point of view is a February 1999 statement by General Patrick M. Hughes, then Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA...
...with others in the international community, will seek involvement in several SSCOs at the same time...
...a "peer competitor" that could challenge U.S...
...However, Pentagon officials are also determined to military's car maintain the potency of the U.S...
...It is evident, how 0 0 a An artist's rendering of the U.S...
...8. Lt...
...POLICY allies and UN peacekeeping forces...
...d absolute air supremacy over domination of space entails "a combination of global eneral Schwarzkopf give the surveillance of Earth (see anything, anytime), worldound attack to begin...
...In a nutshell: When vital U.S...
...But however inconspicuous, the ticular weapons system or when and how to apply U.S...
...strategy is the more difficult to reconstruct...
...itially calls for a monopoly of sion a far more robust NMD system-aimed as much er...
...As this formula has evolved in the intervening years, it has acquired what might be termed an epidemiological character...
...By the same token, this strategy holds that all other states must forever be barred from attaining a similar position of advantage...
...Foreign Affairs, Vol...
...From the leaked text in The New York Times, March 7, 1992...
...Great emphaVOL XXXIV...
...And this, he added, is "what this Kosovo thing is all about...
...arsenal will be combat pr significantly downsized in accor- Colombian dance with the START-I and START-II treaties...
...The widespread popularity of Powell's two-war, anti-rogue posture was made fully evident in 1993, when the Clinton Administration adopted a near-replica of the Base Force as the foundation of its own strategic plan (as articulated in the "bottom-up review" of September 1, 1993).'7 In the years that followed, debate over security policy in Washington largely revolved around the question of whether the existing military establishment is sufficiently powerful to satisfy the requirement for a two-war force...
...This approach was first at Russian and Chinese missiles as at rogue-state Persian Gulf war, when U.S...
...To minimize the risk of being branded the "world's policeman," Pentagon officials prefer U.S...
...6 The Department of Defense subsequently deleted this language from the final version of the document in response to international protest, but there is no doubt that the initial text represents the actual thinking of U.S...
...transport U.S.-based forces and their equipment to distant war sence if the zones in a relatively short military were amount of time...
...LDemocratic strategy or a Republican strategymilitary strategy in Latin America...
...milisupplement such aid with a direct U.S...
...advisors and technicians tions...
...This prediction, also widely circulated, has combined with Huntington's vision of the "West versus the Rest" to produce the underlying world outlook of senior U.S...
...However, if strategy, with all of the built-in redundancy that such efforts do not succeed, swift intervention by mili- implies...
...But his statements on February 26 and March 23 clearly represent the most authentic expressions of White House thinking on national strategy...
...military presence on lement that their soil), it must be able to direct U.S...
...America truly is the world's indispensable nation," President Clinton affirmed in 1996...
...For the most part, U.S...
...To provide this capability, the DOD is :h defeat...
...At the heart of this religion is a belief that the United States has achieved its "indispensable" status not just because of its size, wealth and favorable geography, but also because of its moral and even spiritual superiority-a condition that is thought to enjoy worldwide recognition...
...Perhaps the clearest expression of this view can be found in President Clinton's important speech of February 26, 1999 on U.S...
...No 3 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 200013 VoL XXXIV, No 3 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2000 13REPORT ON U.S...
...second, a sense that U.S...
Vol. 34 • November 2000 • No. 3
