Selective Expeditionary Power: Setting Conditions to Rapidly Achieve Decisive Battle in 2020

摘要

Faced with an evolving enemy threat, the U.S. must adapt to retain flexibility and selectivity in future engagements. Accordingly, readiness to project power, globally and in a timely fashion, must be seriously considered. Through an emphasis on increasing expeditionary capabilities, emerging global partnerships, and future sealift technologies, the United States will be able to continue to rapidly project power globally in 2020 with minimal impact from the planned reduction of permanent presence overseas. This study leads off with a fictional future scenario that paints a word picture of the key themes. Next, the opportunities and challenges of the cornerstones of rapid power projection are explored: redefining an expeditionary culture; working with emerging global partnerships; and exploiting the 'blue highway.' Anticipated shortfalls and potential solutions are then offered with an emphasis placed on action - revised mindset shift, broad vision, and flexible execution - to achieve a decisive impact now. Finally, the conclusion emphasizes the impact that a more comprehensive application of the overall national power tools will have in enabling the decisive employment of future U.S. power projection.