11. U.S. Military Concepts of War and their Impact on Foreign Interventions
- Author:
- Charles W. Parker III
- Publication Date:
- 06-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
- Abstract:
- This essay argues that military doctrine shapes the nature of United States foreign interventions. In particular, the U.S. military's concepts of “war” and “Military Operations Other Than War” (MOOTW), and the resulting institutional orientation of the Pentagon towards such contingencies, have had a profound impact on the planning and execution of contingencies around the world since the U.S. became a great power. Before World War II, MOOTW-like military interventions were commonplace and mostly successful in the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. Most military interventions such as the Philippines War of 1899-1901 and in the Caribbean (Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Panama, Nicaragua) between 1899 and 1941 were successful limited campaigns that helped consolidate the United States as a regional and global power. U.S. military doctrine and capabilities in counterinsurgency, peace enforcement, and foreign internal defense, were robust. This core competency of the U.S. military was lost in the large scale and conventional struggles against the Axis powers and later the Soviet Union.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy and War
- Political Geography:
- United States, Soviet Union, Cuba, Central America, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Dominican Republic