America Promises to Come Back: Our New National Security Strategy (Final Version)

Abstract

An analysis of President Bush's new national security strategy first unveiled in Aspen, Colorado on August 2, 1990, involving a mix of active, reserve, and reconstitutable forces, and General Colin Powell's Base Force. If implemented, the new strategy and force structure would return significant U.S. ground and air forces to the continental U.S. where most would be demobilized. In the event of a major crisis, the U.S. would rely on active and reserve forces for a contingency response, much as was done for Operation DESERT SHIELD. The new national security strategy is based upon the 25% budget cut negotiated with Congress, and a revised Soviet threat and new international security environment which assumes two-years warning of a European-centered global war with the USSR. During this period, the U.S. and NATO would reconstitute additional military capability. Outline of the sources of new strategy and force structure, the Base Force, transportation requirements, and whether or not the U.S. will retain a unilateral capability for overseas intervention. The new strategy is not simply an adjustment to existing defense doctrine or strategy but rather a fundamental revision to the way the U.S. has approached defense since 1945