United States Army In The 21st Century And The Conflict Between Training For War And Keeping The Peace

As the United States Army enters the 21st Century, its primary mission remains unchanged - to fight and win our Nation's wars. However, with the exception of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the last decade of the 20th Century is replete with examples of the Army's involvement in operations short of "war." Under the rubric of "peace operations" (POs), the US Army participated in operations in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo. The purpose of this paper is to address the conflict the Army faces in the 21st Century between its charter to fight and win our Nation's wars and the ever- increasing requirements to execute peace operations around the world. Some senior leaders argue the skill sets required to fight and win wars and those associated with POs are not exclusive of one another. That assertion is supported in Army Field Manual 100-23 Peace Operations. It states: Peace operations are not a new mission and should not be treated as a separate task to be added to a unit's mission-essential task list. However, units selected for these duties require time to train and prepare for a significant number of tasks EMPHASIS ADDED that may be different from their wartime METL. This paper suggests the significant number of tasks EMPHASIZED ABOVE required to execute POs are substantial enough for POs to be considered unique and that they should be treated as such. Furthermore, this paper suggests the Army's ability to fight and win our Nation's wars is placed at risk due to the degradation of warfighting skills resulting from executing open-ended POs. The Army is at a crossroads in determining its roles and missions in the 21% Century. It must strike an appropriate balance between the mandate to fight and win our Nation's wars and the ramifications of executing ever-increasing peace operations around the world. Failure to do so places the security of the US at risk.

As the United States Army enters the 21st Century, its primary mission remains unchanged - to fight and win our Nation's wars. However, with the exception of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the last decade of the 20th Century is replete with examples of the Army's involvement in operations short of "war." Under the rubric of "peace operations" (POs), the US Army participated in operations in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo. The purpose of this paper is to address the conflict the Army faces in the 21st Century between its charter to fight and win our Nation's wars and the ever-increasing requirements to execute peace operations around the world. Some senior leaders argue the skill sets required to fight and win wars and those associated with POs are not exclusive of one another. That assertion is supported in Army Field Manual 100-23 Peace Operations. It states: Peace operations are not a new mission and should not be treated as a separate task to be added to a unit's mission-essential task list. However, units selected for these duties require time to train and prepare for a significant number of tasks EMPHASIS ADDED that may be different from their wartime METL. This paper suggests the significant number of tasks EMPHASIZED ABOVE required to execute POs are substantial enough for POs to be considered unique and that they should be treated as such. Furthermore, this paper suggests the Army's ability to fight and win our Nation's wars is placed at risk due to the degradation of warfighting skills resulting from executing open-ended POs. The Army is at a crossroads in determining its roles and missions in the 21% Century. It must strike an appropriate balance between the mandate to fight and win our Nation's wars and the ramifications of executing ever-increasing peace operations around the world. Failure to do so places the security of the US at risk.

How military organizations trained for conventional war adapt—or fail to adapt—to nontraditional missions

A major new study of the realities of contemporary warfare, which presents a range of fresh insights and is essential reading for all students and professionals engaged in the field. This book clearly shows us that: neither military nor civilian agencies can act effectively alone in resolving modern conflicts joint civil-military efforts are needed, and those efforts must be deliberately planned from the outset of an operation; they cannot be added on as afterthoughts when all else has failed the record of our efforts over nearly a decade and a half since the end of the Cold War demonstrates that we are doing badly at creating civil-military partnerships, and that we are not getting better. James V. Arbuckle shows how these issues are neither structural nor organizational - they are cultural. They involve attitudes, beliefs, perceptions – positive and negative, true and false. The solutions will involve changing attitudes, moving beyond prejudices, replacing competition with cooperation. The principal mechanisms for this will be common civil-military training and education.

Walk with America's generals, grunts, and Green Berets through the maze of unconventional wars and unsettled peace. Four-star generals who lead the military during wartime reign like proconsuls abroad in peacetime. Secretive Green Berets trained to hunt down terrorists are assigned to seduce ruthless authoritarian regimes. Pimply young soldiers taught to seize airstrips instead play mayor, detective, and social worker in a gung-ho but ill-fated attempt to rebuild a nation after the fighting stops. The Mission is a boots-on-the-ground account of America's growing dependence on our military to manage world affairs, describing a clash of culture and purpose through the eyes of soldiers and officers themselves. With unparalleled access to all levels of the military, Dana Priest traveled to eighteen countries—including Uzbekistan, Colombia, Kosovo, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Afghanistan—talking to generals, admirals, Special Forces A-teams, and infantry troops. Blending Ernie Pyle's worm's-eye view with David Halberstam's altitude, this book documents an historic and thought-provoking trend, one even more significant in the aftermath of September 11 as the country turns to its warriors to solve the complex international challenges ahead.

Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. military forces have participated in an increasingly complex array of military operations, from disaster relief and peacekeeping to deadly combat. The unique nature of many of these missions calls into question what it means to be a soldier and may require adjustments not only in military doctrine, but also in the military's combat-oriented warrior identity. Franke examines the extent to which individuals who will lead U.S. forces in the 21st century are prepared cognitively to shift among mission requirements. Using survey methods, Franke explores the social, political, and professional attitudes and values of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. By comparing cadets' responses across classes, he assesses the effects of military socialization on their commitment to the military's dual-mission purpose and their cognitive preparation for combat and non-combat assignments. By developing a dynamic model of social identity, Franke extends the applicability of social identity theory from the experimental laboratory environment to a genuine social field setting. Assessing the dynamic relationship between identity, values, and attitudes for identifications that are normatively meaningful to respondents, he illustrates the importance of individuals' identification with social groups for their behavioral choices.

Total quality management (TQM), reengineering, the workplace of the twenty-first centuryâ€"the 1990s have brought a sense of urgency to organizations to change or face stagnation and decline, according to Enhancing Organizational Performance. Organizations are adopting popular management techniques, some scientific, some faddish, often without introducing them properly or adequately measuring the outcome. Enhancing Organizational Performance reviews the most popular current approaches to organizational changeâ€"total quality management, reengineering, and downsizingâ€"in terms of how they affect organizations and people, how performance improvements can be measured, and what questions remain to be answered by researchers. The committee explores how theory, doctrine, accepted wisdom, and personal experience have all served as sources for organization design. Alternative organization structures such as teams, specialist networks, associations, and virtual organizations are examined. Enhancing Organizational Performance looks at the influence of the organization's norms, values, and beliefsâ€"its cultureâ€"on people and their performance, identifying cultural "levers" available to organization leaders. And what is leadership? The committee sorts through a wealth of research to identify behaviors and skills related to leadership effectiveness. The volume examines techniques for developing these skills and suggests new competencies that will become required with globalization and other trends. Mergers, networks, alliances, coalitionsâ€"organizations are increasingly turning to new intra- and inter-organizational structures. Enhancing Organizational Performance discusses how organizations cooperate to maximize outcomes. The committee explores the changing missions of the U.S. Army as a case study that has relevance to any organization. Noting that a musical greeting card contains more computing power than existed in the entire world before 1950, the committee addresses the impact of new technologies on performance. With examples, insights, and practical criteria, Enhancing Organizational Performance clarifies the nature of organizations and the prospects for performance improvement. This book will be important to corporate leaders, executives, and managers; faculty and students in organizational performance and the social sciences; business journalists; researchers; and interested individuals.