Examining the Effectiveness of U.S. Elements of National Power in Iraq

摘要

After conducting a successful military campaign to remove the government of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the United States remains locked in a campaign to defeat a growing insurgency. The United States' strategic objectives in Iraq have been clearly defined as providing for a stable, secure, prosperous, peaceful, and democratic nation that is a fully functioning member of the community of nations. In the months following the end of major combat operations, the United States was challenged to effectively coordinate all of the instruments of national power at its disposal to achieve these strategic objectives. As the United States moves forward, it must critically examine how effective it has been at leveraging the diplomatic, informational, military, and economic instruments of national power to achieve its national objectives. This analysis is critical not just to the success of current operations in Iraq but to future complex contingency operations where the national power of the United States would be required. In this paper I intend to examine how the diplomatic, informational, military, and economic elements of power were implemented in the months following the end of major combat operations in Iraq, and will make recommendations on actions which should be taken to improve United States effectiveness in conducting complex contingency operations.