Deterrence is Not a Tactical Task
Garri Hendell | October 11, 2018
As budget pressure causes the US Army to shrink, our national unwillingness to scale back the scope of our mission causes tension between warfighting doctrine and what the Army feels it can reasonably achieve with the tools at hand. This is exemplified in the transformation of “deterrence†from a strategic goal to a tactical task. Deterrence as a task reflects a failure to do the staff work necessary to translate a desired end state articulated by a higher headquarters into a clear task for a subordinate unit.
In US joint doctrine deterrence is “the prevention of action by the existence of a credible threat.†Deterring “opportunistic aggression†during wartime and deterring “nuclear and non-nuclear strategic attacks†feature prominently in the National Defense Strategy.
https://mwi.usma.edu/deterrence-not-tactical-task/
