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This study examines the rise of operations other than war (OOTW) as
a new and prominent tasking for the armed services of the United
States. The author, Lt Col Charles W. Hasskamp, USAF, is an
advocate of the OOTW mission, and he argues that the US Special
Forces Command is an excellent instrument for the task. The author
bases his position on these points. First, the end of the cold war
has provided the United States a respite from the focused
geopolitical strategy and challenge of "containment."
Unfortunately, without the stability coerced by a bipolar world,
the shutters have come off and the shades have gone up on "windows"
that reveal a new world disorder. While the world has an
increasingly interdependent global economy, the legacies of weapons
of mass destruction, terrorism, drug trafficking, and religious and
ethnic extremism generate increasing threats to that free market,
democratic ideal the American public espouses for all countries.
Second, the US government's current national security strategy
emphasizes "engagement and enlargement" as they factor into US
preventive diplomacy. The national military strategy emphasizes
"flexible and selective engagement" which relates to preventive
deterrence. Both of these strategies emphasize the use of US
military forces for considerable work other than fighting the
nation's wars-that is, for OOTW. As recent experience shows, there
is considerable pressure to use the American military as an
arbitrator and peacemaker to the world. This study examines the
arguments for and against expanding our military's nontraditional
roles and missions. It concludes that the US armed forces can do
and will continue to be able to perform an excellent job in
operations other than war, as they have done in the past. The
danger is that this endeavor could jeopardize the readiness of a
force structure necessary to maintain the more traditional
war-fighting capabilities. The study suggests that an actually
smaller force and smaller defense budget can still accomplish the
primary mission of fighting the nation's wars while also
undertaking the myriad of peacetime engagements and conflict
preventions our leaders have ordered. Moreover, the Special
Operations Command, which has the skill and will to serve well in
the full spectrum of armed conflict, also has the cultural, social,
and technical know-how to perform the more complex chores of nation
building and humanitarian operations.
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