Paul Scharre has a very interesting post at War On the Rocks in which he asserts that the Pentagon’s approach to planning and operations is at odds with the national security challenges we’re facing today:
The U.S. military’s dominant paradigm for operations is a six-phase planning construct, consisting of phase 0 (shape), phase I (deter), phase II (seize initiative), phase III (dominate), phase IV (stabilize), and finally, phase V (enable civil authority). This implies a linear progression of conflict through a culminating phase (phase III) of major combat operations, and then a “post-conflict†period of stabilization and transition. Within this paradigm, the central decisive point is assumed to be phase III, and the bulk of the U.S. military’s attention for resourcing, modernizing, training, and allocating risk is found there. While the United States is getting ready for the big fight, however, its adversaries are working to accomplish their objectives short of open conflict.
analogizing the generals’ approach to the Kübler-Ross stages of grief, only with six stages rather than five.
Read the whole thing.
