Prioritizing Foreign Military Engagements: A Multi Objective Decision Analysis Using Value Focused Thinking.

摘要

The purpose of this research is to develop a tool to advise and inform Air Force Senior Leadership when prioritizing military engagements with foreign partners. As the defense budget contracts and military personnel diminish in number it will become more important than ever to carefully prioritize the expenditure of valuable resources. Cuts will be made in the Security Cooperation realm despite its level of importance in a new world where the U.S. hopes to shift some international security burden to coalition partners. This paper uses a Multi Objective Decision Analysis with a Value Focused Thinking methodology to create a model which reduces subjectivity in the decision-making process of prioritizing foreign military engagements. The model is built using an Excel-based Hierarchy Builder add-on using input from SAF/IA and OSD Policy leaders to expose and weigh the many factors which comprise the value of a foreign military engagement. The tool provides a quantitative score and depicts the comparative results graphically which makes the end product easily absorbed by Senior Leaders and communicated to external agents.