Transformation Vital U.S. Defense Issues for the Twenty-First Century

The transformations in world politics and military technology resulting from the end of the Cold War have created equally daunting obstacles for strategic thinkers and defense planners. For more than four decades, American policymakers focused on the specific threat of highly structured conflict with the Soviet Union. However, since the early 1990s, this limited and predictable framework has been increasingly superseded by a more complex, worldwide arena in which state and non-state actors present challenges to U.S. national security and foreign policy. In this valuable new study, a select group of academics and former policymakers offers expert assessments of the future security environment. Across diverse topics and conceptual points of departure, the authors warn of challenges to U.S. security that those in and outside the government incorrectly perceive and incompletely understand. Restructuring the international system and rethinking strategy based on new technologies are necessary although not sufficient, conditions for coping with the new world order. Depending on how well those responsible are able to anticipate the myriad scenarios, U.S. military strategy has the potential for future success or self-defeating paralysis. Strategic thinking for the twenty-first century will, among other requirements, demand that theorists and policymakers consider the implications of chaos and friction, information warfare, terrorism, the militarization of space, and the relationship between the "hard power" of destruction and the "soft power" of military persuasion.Cimbala, Stephen J. is the author of 'Transformation Vital U.S. Defense Issues for the Twenty-First Century' with ISBN 9781574885170 and ISBN 1574885170.