National Will from a Threat Perspective

摘要

The Army training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) intelligence office's Operational Environment document asserts that U.S. adversaries have identified national will as a historically critical vulnerability in U.S. national security posture. Philip Larkin's poem quoted above speaks to the challenge military operations face when domestic support gives over to fatigue and impatience. Although Larkin wrote in 1969, the sentiments he describes are eternal, and the poem could just as easily be from 2010. National will in the modern age is an even more crucial aspect of military success. As U.S. strategic planners project outward, they must consider just how domestic popular and political support for a conflict (serving here as our definition of the term 'national will') will become a target. Commanders in military operations can expect adversaries to consider U.S. troops not only a military target but also a proxy target for national will. Soldiers on the ground in turn must be made to understand how and why they are perceived as symbols, and be given the tools they need to put this knowledge to use in theater. Although conventional warfare is always a possibility, the primary focus for American interests in the foreseeable future will be irregular warfare. If a decisive victory remains elusive, attrition will prolong the conflict and strain the resources and resolve of the Nation. This dynamic has happened in the past and is occurring again today. Such conditions highlight public approbation as a key element of achieving military aims.