Friday
31 March 2000
0830-1130 (EX)
Even the most civilized of peoples can be fired with passionate hatred of each other. Consequently, it would be an obvious fallacy to imagine war between civilized peoples as resulting from merely a rational act on the part of their governments.... The advance of civilization has done nothing practical to alter or deflect the impulse to destroy the enemy, which is central to the very idea of war.
Carl von Clausewitz
No country possessing nuclear weapons will allow itself to be defeated in a conventional war without first resorting to nuclear weapons.
General Colonel M. A. Gareyev
If the potential adversaries both possess weapons of mass destruction, decisive advantage goes to that side which first manages to create a defense against it.
General Colonel B. M. Bondarenko
If the enemy is to be coerced you must first put him in a situation that is even more unpleasant than the sacrifice you call on him to make. The hardships of that situation must not, of course, be merely transient-at least not in appearance. Otherwise, the enemy would not give in but would wait for things to improve.
Carl von Clausewitz
Purpose
The purpose of this lesson is to analyze the national- and theater-level challenges, as well as some of the operational problems, associated with hostile possession and use of weapons of mass destruction, and to create and devise alternative strategies for dealing with such weapons.
Learning Objectives
1. Evaluate the strategic risk posed by an adversary with the will and capacity to use a mix of weapons of mass destruction to counter a deployed US Joint Task Force.
2. Synthesize such an adversary's likely concept for employing such weapons.
3. Analyze the strategic, operational, tactical, and ethical problems likely faced by the JTF commander.
4. Evaluate current US policy, military strategy, joint doctrine, and military capability to defeat such an adversary.
5. Create, devise, and evaluate alternative strategies, doctrine, and capabilities for defeating such an adversary in the future.
Discussion
Throughout the Cold War, the sheer size of the American and Soviet nuclear arsenals-and the ensuing preoccupation with deterrence and arms control-effectively desensitized us to troubles brewing at the margins. Since at least the 1970's, however, several countries have developed, acquired, and employed different weapons of mass destruction.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there have been numerous dire warnings and impassioned appeals to do something about this "clear and present danger." The SECDEF's 1995 Annual Report to Congress presented an apocalyptic vision of the post-Cold War world, with more than 20 nations having or developing nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. Subsequent reports-the Bottom Up Review (BUR), the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), our current NMS, and other top-level pronouncements-all identify proliferation as an immediate security threat facing the U.S. Yet, there is a fundamental difference between calling attention to a problem and designing an effective strategy to cope with its consequences. In other words, by itself, awareness is not a course of action. Today's exercise illustrates the military complexities that could be created by the threatened or actual use of weapons of mass destruction in a peacekeeping operation. It should help focus your attention on how the various components of US military power might be harnessed to counter such an event.
Required Readings
1. Exercise materials (Issued separately).
2. Joint Pub 3-11, Joint Doctrine for Operating in a Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Environment, Chapter I, "Threat and NBC Defense Policy;" Chapter II, "NBC Defense Operations Fundamentals"; Chapter III, "Theater NBC Defense Considerations." (JEL CD-ROM) (Student Issue)
3. Robert G. Joseph and John F. Reichart, Deterrence and Defense in a Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Environment, Center for Counter proliferation Research, National Defense University, Washington, DC, 1999, pp. 1-42. (Student Issue)
Recommended Readings
John F. Reichart, "Adversarial Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons," Joint Force Quarterly, Spring 1998.
 |
 |
 |