U.S. Defense Strategy to Pay More Attention to Fragile States

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From National Defense Magazine:

The new American way of war, says Defense Secretary Robert Gates, will be to prevent costly and controversial military interventions. That will be achieved not by being isolationist, but by helping governments in weak nations root out terrorists.

“Let’s be honest with ourselves,” Gates said in a speech to the National Defense University. “The most likely catastrophic threats to our homeland — for example, an American city poisoned or reduced to rubble by a terrorist attack — are more likely to emanate from failing states than from aggressor states.”

It is not yet clear, however, exactly how the Defense Department will execute this form of preventive warfare. If the U.S. military will be in the business of helping to strengthen weak states and in the process root out terrorists, how will the military organize, train and equip forces for these missions?

The inauguration of a new Africa Command last month was put forth as proof that the Pentagon is serious about applying “soft power” in areas of the world considered to be safe havens for terrorist groups. A new 208-page stability operations field manual published last month by the U.S. Army is yet another indicator that the military will effectively be in charge of nation-building efforts that in the past had been regarded as the purview of the State Department.

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My Comment: With the number of failed states increasing every year .... this is the right focus for the military to undertake.