2004 National Military Strategy Unclassified Version

The National Military Strategy

of the

United States

of America Array

A Strategy for Today; A Vision for Tomorrow

2004

The

National Military Strategy

of the

United States of America

A Strategy for Today; A Vision for Tomorrow

2004

CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20318-9999

The “National Military Strategy” conveys my message to the Joint Force on

the strategic direction the Armed Forces of the United States should follow to support the National Security and Defense Strategies in this time of war.

This document describes the ways and means to protect the United States, prevent con?ict and surprise attack and prevail against adversaries who threaten our homeland, deployed forces, allies and friends. Success rests on three priorities:

First, while protecting the United States we must win the War on Terrorism. The attacks of 11 September 2001 demonstrated that our liberties are vulnerable. The prospect of future attacks, potentially employing weapons of mass destruction, makes it imperative we act now to stop terrorists before they can attack again. We must continue to root out transnational terrorist networks, sever their connections with state sponsors, eliminate their bases of operation, counter dangerous proliferation and establish a global antiterrorism environment. This mission requires the full integration of all instruments of national power, the cooperation and participation of friends and allies and the support of the American people.

Second, we will enhance our ability to ?ght as a joint force. Joint teamwork is an integral part of our culture and focus as we develop leaders, organizations, systems and doctrine. We must continue to strengthen trust and con?dence among the Service components that comprise the Joint Force. Enhancing joint war?ghting requires the integration of our Active and Reserve Components and our civilian work force to create a seamless total force that can meet future challenges. We must strengthen collaboration among our joint forces, agencies at all levels of government and multinational partners. Key to such collaboration is an improved ability to collect, process and share information.

Third, we will transform the Armed Forces “in stride” – ?elding new capabilities and adopting new operational concepts while actively taking the

?ght to terrorists. Transformation requires a combination of technology, intellect and cultural adjustments – adjustments that reward innovation and creativity. In-stride transformation will ensure US forces emerge from the struggle against terrorism with our joint force fully prepared to meet future global challenges.

The NMS serves to focus the Armed Forces on maintaining US leadership in a global community that is challenged on many fronts – from countering the threat of global terrorism to fostering emerging democracies. In this environment, US presence and commitment to partners are essential. Our Armed Forces, operating at home and abroad, in peace and war, will continue to serve as a constant, visible reminder of US resolve to protect common interests. Our dedication to security and stability ensures that the United States is viewed as an indispensable partner, encouraging other nations to join us in helping make the world not just safer, but better.

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary (viii)

I. Introduction (1)

A. Strategic Guidance (1)

1. The National Security Strategy (1)

2. The National Defense Strategy (1)

B. The Role of the National Military Strategy (2)

C. Key Aspects of the Security Environment (4)

1. A Wider Range of Adversaries (4)

2. A More Complex and Distributed Battlespace (5)

3. Technology Diffusion and Access (6)

D. Strategic Principles (7)

1. Agility (7)

2. Decisiveness (7)

3. Integration (7)

II. National Military Objectives (9)

A. Protect the United States (9)

B. Prevent Conflict and Surprise Attacks (11)

C. Prevail Against Adversaries (13)

III. A Joint Force for Mission Success (15)

A. Desired Attributes (15)

B. Functions and Capabilities (16)

1. Applying Force (16)

2. Deploying and Sustaining Military Capabilities (17)

3. Securing Battlespace (18)

4. Achieving Decision Superiority (19)

IV. Force Design and Size (21)

A. Force Design and Size (21)

B. Risk and Force Assessments (22)

V. Joint Vision for Future Warfighting (23)

A. Full Spectrum Dominance (23)

B. Initiatives (24)

VI. Conclusion (27)

Executive Summary

Chairman’s Intent

Our challenge for the coming year and beyond is to stay the course in the War on Terrorism as we continue to transform our Armed Forces to conduct future joint operations. We cannot afford to let our recent successes cause us to lose focus or lull us into satisfaction with our current capabilities. The war is not over, and there is still dangerous work to do. To meet this challenge, we continue to focus on three priorities: winning the War on Terrorism, enhancing joint warfighting and transforming for the future.

Strategic Guidance

The National Military Strategy is guided by the goals and objectives contained in the President’s “National Security Strategy” and serves to implement the Secretary of Defense’s “National Defense Strategy of the United States of America.” The Role of the NMS

The NMS provides focus for military activities by defining a set of interrelated military objectives from which the Service Chiefs and combatant commanders identify desired capabilities and against which CJCS assesses risk. Key Aspects of the Security Environment

? A Wider Range of Adversaries

? A More Complex and Distributed Battlespace

? Technology Diffusion and Access Principles guiding the development of the Joint Force

? Agility

? Decisiveness

? Integration Military Objectives

The NMS establishes three military objectives that support the National Defense Strategy:

? Protect the United States Against External Attacks and Aggression

? Prevent Conflict and Surprise Attack ? Prevail Against Adversaries.

Desired Attributes of the Force

? Fully Integrated

? Expeditionary

? Networked

? Decentralized

? Adaptable

? Decision Superiority

? Lethality

Capabilities and Functions

? Applying Force

? Deploying and Sustaining Military Capabilities

? Securing Battlespace

? Achieving Decision Superiority Designing and Sizing the Force Executing the NMS requires a force able to generate decisive effects in any contingency and sustain multiple, overlapping operations. The force must have the capabilities necessary to create and preserve an enduring peace.

Joint Vision for Future Warfighting Sustaining and increasing the qualitative military advantages the United States enjoys today will require transformation - a transformation achieved by combining technology, intellect and cultural changes across the joint community. The goal is Full Spectrum Dominance – the ability to control any situation or defeat any adversary across the range of military operations.

I. Introduction

The National Military Strategy (NMS) supports the aims of the National Security Strategy (NSS) and implements the National Defense Strategy (NDS). It describes the Armed Forces’ plan to achieve military objectives in the near term and provides the vision for ensuring they remain decisive in the future.

A. Strategic Guidance

1. The National Security Strategy

The President’s NSS affirms the Nation’s commitment to “help make the world not just safer but better.” This requires victory in the War on Terrorism (WOT) – a victory that is enduring and contributes to defending, preserving and extending the peace. The NSS directs an active strategy to counter transnational terrorist networks, rogue nations and aggressive states that possess or are working to gain weapons of mass destruction or effect (WMD/E). 1 It emphasizes activities to foster relationships among US allies, partners and friends. Such relationships support efforts to strike globally at terrorist organizations and create conditions inhospitable to terrorism and rogue regimes. The NSS highlights the need to retain and improve capabilities to prevent attacks against the United States, work cooperatively with other nations and multinational organizations and transform America’s national security institutions.

2. The National Defense Strategy

The NDS supports the NSS by establishing a set

of overarching defense objectives that guide the

Department’s security activities and provide

direction for the National Military Strategy. The

NDS objectives serve as links between military

activities and those of other government agencies in

pursuit of national goals. The Department must

take action to secure the United States from direct

attack and counter, at a safe distance, those who

seek to harm the country. The Department must

work to secure strategic access to key regions, lines

of communication and the “global commons” of

international waters, airspace, space and

cyberspace. Defense activities must help establish

security conditions favorable to the United States

and its partners while working to expand the

1 The term WMD/E relates to a broad range of adversary capabilities that pose potentially devastating impacts. WMD/E includes chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and enhanced high explosive weapons as well as other, more asymmetrical “weapons”. They may rely more on disruptive impact than destructive kinetic effects. For example, cyber attacks on US commercial information systems or attacks against transportation networks may have a greater economic or psychological effect than a relatively small release of a lethal agent.

community of like-minded nations. The Department will also work to strengthen alliances and partnerships by helping other nations increase their ability to defend themselves and protect common security interests.

The NDS focuses Department activities on actions that assure allies and friends, dissuade potential adversaries, deter aggression and counter coercion and defeat adversaries. These interconnected activities promote close cooperation with those committed to the principles of freedom, democracy and opportunity. The NDS provides four guidelines for implementing the strategy – create an active defense-in-depth; conduct continuous transformation; adopt a capabilities-based approach; and manage risks. These guidelines will structure strategic planning and decision-making across all segments of the Department.

B. The Role of the National Military Strategy

The NMS derives objectives, missions and capability requirements from an analysis of the NSS, the NDS and the security environment. The NSS and NDS provide a broad strategic context for employing military capabilities in concert with other instruments of national power. The NMS provides focus for military activities by defining a set of interrelated military objectives and joint operating concepts from which the Service Chiefs and combatant commanders identify desired capabilities and against which the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff assesses risk.

The NSS establishes homeland security as the first priority of the Nation. The Armed Forces’ role in homeland security is complex, combining actions overseas and at home to protect the United States. Our first line of defense is abroad and includes mutually supporting activities with US allies to counter threats close to their source. Closer to home, the Armed Forces use their capabilities to secure strategic air, land, sea and space approaches to the United States and its territory. When directed, the Armed Forces employ military capabilities at home to protect the nation, the domestic population and critical infrastructure from direct attack. Protecting the United States also requires integrating military capabilities with other government and law enforcement agencies to manage the consequences of an attack or natural disaster.

The President and Secretary of Defense continue to highlight the increasingly dangerous nature and capabilities of adversaries. The threat posed by adversaries, especially those that possess WMD/E, is so great that the United States must adopt a global posture and take action to prevent conflict and surprise attack. Achieving this objective includes actions to shape the security environment in ways that enhance and expand multinational partnerships. Strong alliances and coalitions contribute to mutual security, tend to deter aggression, and help set conditions for success in combat if deterrence fails. Preventing conflict and surprise attack is not, however, solely defensive. The potentially catastrophic impact of an attack against the United States, its allies and its interests may necessitate actions in self-defense to preempt adversaries before they can attack.

Both the NSS and NDS envision a future environment that is safer and better than today. When called upon, the military must be prepared to contribute to this goal through campaigns to prevail against adversaries. While the Armed Forces’ foremost task is to fight and win wars, the character of conflict has changed, necessitating capabilities to defeat a wide range of adversaries – from states to non-state actors. The Armed Force must have the capability to swiftly defeat adversaries in overlapping campaigns while preserving the option to expand operations in one of those campaigns to achieve more comprehensive objectives. Prevailing against adversaries includes integrating all instruments of national power within a campaign to set the conditions for an enduring victory.

Achieving the objectives of protect, prevent and prevail requires connected joint operating concepts (JOCs) that provide direction on how the joint force will operate and a foundation for defining military capabilities. The JOCs describe how the Joint Force conducts key missions and are supported by functional concepts of force application, protection, focused logistics, battlespace awareness and command and control. The JOCs serve to guide the continuous transformation of the Armed Forces and provide a key linkage to the Armed Forces’ vision2 for future joint warfighting. This vision establishes the ultimate goal of the transformed force – the ability to achieve full spectrum dominance across the range of military operations.

Achieving the objectives of the NMS in an uncertain and complex environment requires a capabilities-based approach to force design and planning that focuses less on a specific adversary or where a conflict might occur and more on how an adversary might fight. This capabilities-based approach uses operating concepts to drive planning and to guide the development of warfighting capabilities. It ensures the joint force can adapt and succeed across a broad range of scenarios. This approach must anticipate and rapidly adjust to changes in the security environment to ensure the United States improves its qualitative advantage over a more diverse set of adversaries – now and in the future.

2 The NMS integrates the document formerly known as “Joint Vision.”

The objectives of the NMS help define attributes and capabilities that the Joint Force requires and directly contribute to objectives of the NDS. These attributes and capabilities are important in determining the required size and design of the Armed Forces. Protecting the United States, preventing conflict and surprise attacks, and prevailing against adversaries will require forces appropriately sized and shaped in accordance with the NDS force-planning construct. The force must be sized to defend the US homeland while continuing to operate in and from four forward regions to deter aggression and coercion and set conditions for future operations. Even when committed to a limited number of lesser contingencies, the Armed Forces must retain the capability to swiftly defeat adversaries in two overlapping military campaigns. Additionally, when the President calls for an enduring result in one of the two, the force must have the capability and capacity to win decisively.

Combatant commands must consider the effect of their current posture when undertaking new operations. They will operate within a baseline security posture that includes the WOT and other ongoing operations from which they may be unable or unwilling to disengage. Planners must, therefore account for WOT campaign objectives when developing their force requirements.

C. Key Aspects of the Security Environment

of dangerous and pervasive threats.

Traditional, irregular, catastrophic,

and disruptive challenges will require

the Armed Forces to adjust quickly

and decisively to change and

anticipate emerging threats. Three key

aspects of the security environment

have unique implications for executing

this military strategy and will drive the

development of concepts and

capabilities that ensure success in

future operations.

1. A Wider Range of Adversaries

Adversaries capable of threatening

the United States, its allies, and its

interests range from states to non-

state organizations to individuals.

There are states with traditional military forces and advanced systems, including cruise and ballistic missiles, which could seek to control key regions of the world. A few of these states are ‘rogues’ that violate treaties, secretly pursue and proliferate WMD/E, reject peaceful resolution of disputes and display callous disregard for their citizens. Some of these states sponsor terrorists, providing them financial support,

sanctuary and access to dangerous capabilities. There are non-state actors,

including terrorist networks, international criminal organizations and illegal armed

groups that menace stability and security. Even some individuals may have the means and will to disrupt international order. Some of these adversaries are politically unconstrained and, particularly in the case of non-state actors, may be less susceptible to traditional means of deterrence. Adversaries increasingly seek asymmetric capabilities and will use them in innovative ways. They will avoid US strengths like precision strike and seek to counter US power projection capabilities by creating anti-access environments. Such adversaries will target civilian populations, economic centers and symbolic locations as a way to attack US political will and resolve.

This volatile mix of challenges requires new methods of deterrence and operational approaches to defeat these threats should deterrence fail. Intelligence systems must allow commanders to understand enemy intent, predict threat actions, and detect adversary movements, providing them the time necessary to take preventive measures. Long before conflict occurs these intelligence systems must help provide a more thorough understanding of adversaries’ motivations, goals and organizations to determine effective deterrent courses of action. There may, however, be adversaries who remain undeterred. Should they acquire WMD/E or dangerous asymmetric capabilities, or demonstrate the intent to mount a surprise attack, the United States must be prepared to prevent them from striking.

2. A More Complex and Distributed Battlespace

Adversaries threaten the United States throughout a complex battlespace, extending from critical regions overseas to the homeland and spanning the global commons of international airspace, waters, space and cyberspace. There exists an “arc of instability” stretching from the Western Hemisphere, through Africa and the Middle East and extending to Asia. There are areas in this arc that serve as breeding grounds for threats to our interests. Within these areas rogue states provide sanctuary to terrorists, protecting them from surveillance and attack. Other adversaries take advantage of ungoverned space and under-governed territories from which they prepare plans, train forces and launch attacks. These ungoverned areas often coincide with locations of illicit activities; such coincidence creates opportunities for hostile coalitions of criminal elements and ideological extremists.

The United States will conduct operations in widely diverse locations – from densely populated urban areas located in littoral regions to remote, inhospitable and austere locations. Military operations in this complex environment may be dramatically different than the high intensity combat missions for which US forces routinely train. While US Armed Forces’ will continue to emphasize precision, speed, lethality and distributed operations, commanders must expect and plan for the possibility that their operations will produce unintended 2nd- and 3rd-order effects. For example, US forces can precisely locate, track, and destroy discrete targets to reduce collateral damage and conclude operations as quickly as possible. Operations that rely on precision may result in large elements of an adversary’s military remaining intact and segments of the population unaffected. Commanders must prepare to operate in regions where pockets of resistance remain and there exists the potential for continued combat operations amidst a large number of non-combatants.

This battlespace places unique demands on military organizations and interagency partners, requiring more detailed coordination and synchronization of activities both overseas and at home. Our experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq highlight the need for a comprehensive strategy to achieve longer-term national goals and objectives. The United States must adopt an “active defense-in-depth” that merges joint force, interagency, international non-governmental organizations, and multinational capabilities in a synergistic manner. This defense does not rely solely on passive measures. The United States must enhance security at home while actively patrolling strategic approaches and extending defensive capabilities well beyond US borders. An effective defense-in-depth must also include the capability to strike swiftly at any target around the globe using forces at home as well as forward-based, forward-deployed and rotational forces.

3. Technology Diffusion and Access

Global proliferation of a wide range of technology and weaponry will affect the character of future conflict. Dual-use civilian technologies, especially information technologies, high-resolution imagery and global positioning systems are widely available. These relatively low cost, commercially available technologies will improve the disruptive and destructive capabilities of a wide range of state and non-state actors. Advances in automation and information processing will allow some adversaries to locate and attack targets both overseas and in the United States. Software tools for network-attack, intrusion and disruption are globally available over the Internet, providing almost any interested adversary a basic computer network exploitation or attack capability. Access to advanced weapons systems and innovative delivery systems could fundamentally change warfighting and dramatically increase an adversary’s ability to threaten the United States.

Technology diffusion and access to advanced weapons and delivery systems have significant implications for military capabilities. The United States must have the ability to deny adversaries such disruptive technologies and weapons. However, the Armed Forces cannot focus solely on these threats and assume there are not other challenges on the horizon. Ensuring current readiness while continuing to transform and maintaining unchallenged military superiority will require investment. These are not mutually exclusive goals.

The Armed Forces must remain ready to fight even as they transform and transform even as they fight. Adopting an “in-stride” approach to transformation – through rapid prototyping, field experimentation, organizational redesign and concept development – will ensure US military superiority remains unmatched. Such an approach requires effective balancing of resources to recapitalize critical capabilities and modernize some elements of the force to maintain readiness while investing in programs that extend US military advantages into the future.

D. Strategic Principles

Commanders must develop plans that ensure they retain the agility to contend with uncertainty, apply effects decisively and integrate actions with other government agencies and multinational partners. Combatant commanders should consider these principles when planning and conducting operations. These principles guide the development of joint operations concepts and the capabilities the joint force requires.

1. Agility

It is imperative that the Armed Forces retain the ability to contend with the principal characteristic of the security environment – uncertainty. Agility is the ability to rapidly deploy, employ, sustain and redeploy capabilities in geographically separated and environmentally diverse regions. As commanders conduct operations they must consider the effects of surprise and the possibility that their forces may have to transition from one type or phase of an operation to another quickly, or conduct phases simultaneously, regardless of location. Agility, as a planning principle, allows commanders to conduct simultaneous missions while retaining the ability to respond to emerging crises. Agility is key to quickly seizing the initiative across the range of military operations and ensuring the Armed Forces can act swiftly and decisively to protect US interests.

2. Decisiveness

Decisiveness allows combatant commanders to overwhelm adversaries, control situations and achieve definitive outcomes. Decisiveness requires tailored packages of joint capabilities designed to achieve specific effects and accomplish objectives. Achieving decisiveness may not require large force deployments but rather employing capabilities in innovative ways. Transforming the Armed Forces’ capacity to mass effects while retaining the ability to mass forces, if needed, is key to achieving decisiveness. By focusing on decisive outcomes, combatant commanders can more precisely define the effects they must generate and determine the capabilities they require.

3. Integration

Commanders must ensure military activities are integrated effectively with the application of other instruments of national and international power to provide focus and unity of effort. Integration focuses on fusing and synchronizing military operations among the Services, other government agencies, the commercial sector,

non-governmental organizations and those of partners abroad. Integration does not preclude the unilateral use of force, but rather seeks to ensure unity of effort and maximize the contribution of partners. Enabling multinational partners through security cooperation and other engagement activities enhances the ability of the Armed Forces to not only prevent conflict and deter aggression but also supports combatant commanders’ plans to quickly undertake operations over great distances and in sometimes overlapping conflicts.

Agility, decisiveness, and integration support simultaneous operations, the application of overmatching power3 and the fusion of US military power with other instruments of power. These principles stress speed, allowing US commanders to exploit an enemy’s vulnerabilities, rapidly seize the initiative and achieve endstates. They support the concept of surging capabilities from widely dispersed locations to mass effects against an adversary’s centers of gravity to achieve objectives. Our strategic principles guide the application of military power to protect, prevent and prevail in ways that contribute to longer-term national goals and objectives.

3 Overmatching power is the precise application of combat power to foreclose enemy options and rapidly seize the initiative to achieve conclusive victories.

II. National Military Objectives

The NDS establishes four strategic objectives: secure the United States from direct attack; secure strategic access and maintain global freedom of action; establish security conditions conducive to a favorable international order; and strengthen alliances and partnerships to contend with common challenges. The NMS establishes three supporting military objectives: to protect the United States against external attacks and aggression; prevent conflict and surprise attack; and prevail against adversaries. These are the ends of the strategy and help to assure allies and friends, dissuade adversaries and deter aggression and coercion while ensuring the Armed Forces remain ready to defeat adversaries should deterrence and dissuasion fail. They serve as benchmarks to assess levels of risk and help to define the types and amounts of military capabilities required.

Joint operating concepts (JOCs), currently under development, support each objective and link specific tasks to programmatic actions as well as guide the development of plans and the execution of operations. The current set of JOCs – Homeland Security, Stability Operations, Strategic Deterrence and Major Combat Operations – represent related actions that support all of the NMS objectives. While some of the JOCs may focus on specific elements of the strategy, success requires integrated action and unity of effort across each of the concepts. Although military objectives have enduring elements, the ways to achieve those goals must evolve through experimentation, operational experience, and the development of transformational capabilities.

Several considerations will guide combatant commanders in their planning. First, NMS objectives are interrelated and require the application of capabilities across the tactical, operational and strategic spectrum. Each of the objectives will generally involve collaborative efforts with other agencies and departments in the US government. Second, commanders will need to develop plans to achieve objectives simultaneously. The ability to conduct simultaneous operations ensures the United States retains its initiative even during multiple operations. Finally, commanders cannot rely solely on reactive measures and a robust defensive posture to accomplish objectives. This strategy requires a posture of anticipatory self-defense, which reflects the need for prepared and proportional responses to imminent aggression. When directed, commanders will preempt in self-defense those adversaries that pose an unmistakable threat of grave harm and which are not otherwise deterrable.

A. Protect the United States

Today, our first priority is to protect the United States. Joint forces help to secure the United States from direct attack through military activities overseas, planning and execution of homeland defense and support to civil authorities. Our experience in the WOT reinforces the fact that protecting the Nation and its global interests requires more than passive defensive measures. The threats posed by terrorist groups and rogue states, especially those that gain access to WMD/E, mandate an active defense-in-depth. Achieving this objective requires actions to

counter threats overseas and close to their source; to secure our air, sea, space and land territorial approaches; and at home to defend against direct attacks. When directed, the Armed Forces provide military support to civil authorities, including capabilities to manage the consequences of an attack.

Countering Threats Close to their Source. Our primary line of defense remains well forward. Forces operating in key regions are essential to the defense of the United States and to the protection of allies and US interests. Our theater security activities with multinational partners provide access to information and intelligence critical to anticipating and understanding new threats. This access supports the ability of the United States to project power against threats and support the establishment of an environment that reduces the conditions that foster extremist ideologies. Our forces, including those rotationally deployed and those stationed forward, will work cooperatively with other nations to encourage regional partners to eliminate threats and patrol ungoverned space. More directly, deployed military units will work closely with international partners and other US government agencies to take the battle to the enemy – engaging terrorist forces, terrorist collaborators and those governments harboring terrorists.

Protecting Strategic Approaches. The JOC for “Homeland Security” includes tasks to protect the United States from direct attack while securing the air, sea, land and space approaches to the United States. We will join the efforts of multinational partners and other US government agencies to form an integrated defense of the air, land, sea and space approaches in and around US sovereign territory. Protecting these strategic approaches requires persistent surveillance that allows the United States to identify, continuously track and interdict potential threats. This integrated defense is essential to securing strategic access and retaining US freedom of action.

Defensive Actions at Home. While we will attempt to counter threats close to their source and interdict them along the strategic approaches, we must retain the ability to defend the United States from an attack that penetrates our forward defenses. At home the Armed Forces must defend the United States against air and missile attacks, terrorism and other direct attacks. As necessary, the Armed Forces will protect critical infrastructure that supports our ability to project military power. When directed, the Armed Forces will temporarily employ military capabilities to support law enforcement agencies during special events. During emergencies the Armed Forces may provide military support to civil authorities in mitigating the consequences of an attack or other catastrophic event when civilian responders are overwhelmed. Military responses under these conditions require a streamlined chain-of-command that integrates the unique capabilities of active and reserve military components and civilian responders. Effective defense in the face of adaptive adversaries will also require the exploitation of future technologies to improve capabilities to rapidly detect, assess and interdict WMD/E and emerging threats.

Creating a Global Anti-Terrorism Environment. In addition to defending the US homeland and supporting civil authorities, our strategy will diminish the conditions that permit terrorism to flourish. To defeat terrorists we will support national and partner nation efforts to deny state sponsorship, support, and sanctuary

to terrorist organizations. We will work to deny terrorists safe haven in failed states and ungoverned regions. Working with other nations’ militaries and other governmental agencies, the Armed Forces help to establish favorable security conditions and increase the capabilities of partners. The relationships developed in these interactions contribute to a global antiterrorism environment that further reduces threats to the United States, its allies and its interests. For example, intelligence partnerships with other nations can take advantage of foreign expertise and areas of focus and provide access to previously denied areas. These relationships are essential mission components to protecting the United States, contributing to deterrence and conflict prevention, as well as preventing surprise attacks.

B. Prevent Conflict and Surprise Attacks

The United States must prevent conflict and surprise attacks through actions that deter aggression and coercion while retaining the capability to act promptly in defending the nation. Preventing conflict and deterring aggression rely in large part on an integrated overseas presence. Overseas, US forces permanently based in strategically important areas, rotationally deployed forward in support of regional objectives, and temporarily deployed during contingencies convey a credible message that the United States remains committed to preventing conflict. These forces also clearly demonstrate that the United States will react forcefully should an adversary threaten the United States, its interests, allies and partners. The United States must remain vigilant in identifying conditions that can lead to conflict in anticipating adversary actions and in reacting more swiftly than in the past. The Joint Force will deploy forward with a purpose – on the ground, in the air, in space and at sea – and work with other nations to promote security and to deter aggression. Preventing conflict and surprise attacks requires that the Armed Forces take action to ensure strategic access, establish favorable security conditions and work to increase the capabilities of partners to protect common security interests.

Forward Posture and Presence. Increasing the capabilities of partners and their willingness to cooperate in operations that ensure regional security requires an integrated, global view of our long-term strategy and enhancements to our overseas military posture. Combatant commanders, employing a mix of forward stationed, rotational and temporarily deployed capabilities tailored to perform specific missions, improve our ability to act within and across borders, strengthen the role of partners and expand joint and multinational capabilities. Posture and presence enhancements also serve to assure our friends; improve the ability to prosecute the WOT; deter, dissuade and defeat other threats; and support transformation. These changes, developed in anticipation of future threats, help to ensure strategic access

to key regions and lines of communications critical to US security and sustaining operations throughout the battlespace. Within the process of adjusting our overseas presence, combatant commanders must develop and recommend posture adjustments that enable expeditionary, joint, and multinational forces to act promptly and globally while establishing favorable security conditions. The value and utility of having forces forward goes beyond winning on the battlefield. Employing forces in instances short of war demonstrates the United States’ willingness to lead and encourages others to help defend, preserve and extend the peace.

Promote Security. The visible and purposeful presence of US military capabilities is an integral part of an active global strategy to ensure security and stability. Military forces engage in security cooperation (SC) activities to establish important military interactions, building trust and confidence between the United States and its multinational partners. These relatively small investments often produce results that far exceed their cost.

SC complements other national-level efforts to prevent conflict and promote mutual security interests. These activities encourage nations to develop, modernize and transform their own capabilities, thereby increasing the capabilities of partners and helping them to help themselves. SC helps resolve doctrinal employment differences among military counterparts, enhances important intelligence and communication linkages and facilitates rapid crisis response. Active SC contributes to stability in key areas of the world while dissuading potential adversaries from adopting courses of action that threaten stability and security. In this way, we facilitate the integration of military operations with allies, contribute to regional stability, reduce underlying conditions that foment extremism and set the conditions for future success.

Deterring Aggression. Deterrence rests on an adversary understanding that the United States has an unquestioned ability to deny strategic objectives and to impose severe consequences in response to hostile or potentially hostile actions. Deterring aggression and coercion must be anticipatory in nature to prevent the catastrophic impact of attacks using biological, chemical or nuclear weapons on civilian population centers in the United States or in partner nations. The Armed Forces have the capability to exercise flexible deterrent options (FDOs) with appropriate combat power to defuse a crisis or force an adversary to reevaluate its courses of action. Combatant commanders build upon the capabilities of early arriving FDOs to support the swift defeat of an adversary when necessary. Moreover, they employ capabilities to establish favorable security conditions in which other, non-military FDOs can succeed.

Effective deterrence requires a strategic communication plan that emphasizes the willingness of the United States to employ force in defense of its interests. Combatant commander participation is essential in developing a strategic communication plan that conveys US intent and objectives, and ensures the success of the plan by countering adversary disinformation and misinformation. Such strategic communication can help avoid conflict or deescalate tensions among adversaries.

The United States requires a broad set of options to discourage aggression and coercion. Nuclear capabilities continue to play an important role in deterrence by providing military options to deter a range of threats, including the use of WMD/E and large-scale conventional forces. Additionally, the extension of a credible nuclear deterrent to allies has been an important nonproliferation tool that has removed incentives for allies to develop and deploy nuclear forces. Deterring aggression by a wider range of adversaries requires transforming existing US strategic nuclear forces into a new triad composed of a diverse portfolio of capabilities. This new model for