US Military Power and Global Security

Abstract

You have asked me to address the subject of ‘Parameters of Military Power: The US Commitment’, and also to make some observations about the scope and utility of American strength as an instrument of national policy. First, a cautionary word or two. I will be speaking to you from an American perspective on US military power, its achievements and its prospects. It is important to keep in mind that American strategy, like that of other nations, has used many governmental tools to serve national purposes. The military is an important one of those instruments. But I stress that it is only one of an amalgam of policies designed to achieve our strategic goals, and which is adjusted and reshaped over a period of years. A second prefatory note is that I will be speaking from a Washington standpoint, and there is some risk here of appearing to understate the vital role of friends and allies in the entire post-war drama. I believe it is clear that American power has made a substantial contribution to the free world’s well-being in the post-war period. But in each region the progress made has been primarily due to the energy of the peoples most directly involved. And securing those gains has been and must continue to be a joint and collective endeavour. Simply put, we should not lose sight of the collaborative forest as we concentrate on some of its prominent trees.