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This book is an analysis of President Bush's Regional Defense Strategy first unveiled in Aspen, Colorado, on August 2, 1990. This strategy involves a mix of active, reserve, and reconstitutable forces, and General Colin Powell's Base Force. If implemented, the new strategy and force structure would return significant U.S. ground and air forces to the continental United States where most would be demobilized. In the event of a major crisis, the United States would rely on active and reserve forces for a contingency response, much as was done for Operation Desert Storm. The new national security strategy is based upon the 25 percent budget cut negotiated with Congress, a greatly depleted Russian threat, and a new international security environment that assumes two-years' warning of a European-centered global war with the former USSR.
There are four major critical factors upon which the new strategy depends: (1) the continued decline of the Russians as a threat to world stability; (2) the ability of the intelligence community to meet new challenges; (3) the behavior of the allies and Congress; and (4) the ability of industry to meet new demands. The new strategy is not simply an adjustment to existing defense doctrine or strategy, but rather a fundamental revision of the way the United States has approached defense since 1945. Students and scholars interested in politico-military strategy and government policy will find this book of great interest.
List of contents
Introduction
Sources of the New Strategy
The President's New National Security Strategy
The Base Force
NATO Initiatives
The New Soviet Union
Impact on the Navy and Marine Corps
Issues For Discussion
Critical Success Factors
Defense Business as Usual?
Bibliography
Index
About the author
JAMES JOHN TRITTEN has served as the chairman of the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School and as Assistant Director, Net Assessment, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He is a retired Naval officer and Naval aviator who held subspecialty ratings in strategic planning, joint intelligence, and the Soviet Union. He has done research for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, the National Security Council Staff, the Defense Nuclear Agency, and the RAND Corporation.
