Summary: The Changing Face of Military Strategy
Horst Pleiner
September the 11th 2001 put an end to the illusion that after the end of the Cold War we would be able to cash in on a peace dividend and reduce security spending. It also marked the beginning of a new American strategy aimed at countering terrorist threats at home, while allowing for preventive military actions against terrorist organizations as well as regimes harboring or supporting them.
For the US it is not only a matter of fighting terrorism but also of securing resources and transport routes. Seen from this perspective, the US presence in a number of Central Asian republics or the Middle East and the Gulf region, respectively assumes an entirely new dimension. By contrast, the EU has, thus far, not been able to develop a common approach to a European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP).
While deterrence and containment continue to be essential elements of US military strategy, they have been supplemented by preventive operations launched against terrorists and producers of weapons of mass destruction. Neither the UN nor NATO will be able to stop the US from going this route. Washington has demonstrated its willingness to go it alone already before the Iraq War, for instance during the Suez Crisis or by a number of interventions in Latin America. In view of widespread proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, however, it remains to be seen how the US will react against states other than Iraq.
With the 1999 Helsinki Headline Goals the European Union has set very ambitious steps for establishing an ESDP. By the end of this year 60,000 troops that are to be operationally ready within 60 days and sustainable for the duration of one year should be available for peacekeeping and humanitarian missions. This effort will clearly reveal the shortcomings in EU strategic capacities, such as air and sea transport as well as precision weapons and missile defense.
For some time now the US has been in the process if restructuring its forces. Likewise the European states will not be able to avoid adapting their forces to the changed operational spectrum. Such transformations will have to be undertaken by every country individually on the basis of clear-cut security-political guidelines. In Austria the AAF Reform Committee is in the process of elaborating such guidelines. Since no armed force will be able to cover the entire operational spectrum, closer cooperation and specialization within the framework of NATO or the EU, respectively will be necessary.
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