Strategic Shift to the Asia-Pacific and the U.S. Army.

摘要

By 2010, the global financial crisis and the costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan served as clear signals that the United States had arrived at a strategic inflection point warranting a new approach to national prosperity and security. As a result, in early 2012, President Obama directed the Asia-Pacific region as the national priority for the investment of diplomatic, economic, and strategic time and energy. Within the Department of Defense, the U.S Army is the proponent for operations on land. As such, the Army must adjust course from its previous focus in the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific region to ensure that it is organized, trained, and equipped to effectively support the strategic shift. The principal challenge for the Army will be to conduct the requisite activities associated with the strategic shift under fiscally austere conditions. The Army Chief of Staff and other senior leaders have offered several initiatives towards this end to include structure and force generation adjustments and regionally aligning brigade combat team formations. These preliminary approaches will enable the Army to embark on a fiscally responsible path to advance national interests in the Asia-Pacific region.