Final Report on U.S. Military Strategy
for the 21st Century

Final Report link here: - 387KB in PDF format.

What are the new security threats confronting the United States today? How should the United States meet the full spectrum of early 21st century challenges? How should the Armed Services transform as a joint military force to address these challenges? These critical questions are the focus of the just published Final Report based on a conference entitled Strategic Responsiveness: Early and Continuous Joint Effectiveness-Across the Spectrum, held on 2-3 November 1999 in Washington, D.C.

Featured speakers at this twenty-ninth annual conference included:

• William S. Cohen, Secretary of Defense
• General Henry H. Shelton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
• General Eric K. Shinseki, USA, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army
• General James L. Jones, USMC, Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps
• Admiral Donald L. Pilling, USN, Vice Chief of Naval Operations
• General Lester L. Lyles, USAF, Vice Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force
• Senator John Warner, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee
• Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee
• Edward L. Warner III, Assistant Secretary of Defense
• General Klaus Naumann, former Chairman of NATO's Military Committee

More than 350 policymakers, senior military leaders, members of Congress, analysts from the academic and think tank communities, key industry representatives, and the media attended. This Final Report synthesizes and analyzes presentations and discussions at the conference.

Key Findings:

• The strategies and force structures set forth in the 1997 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) have become increasingly unsustainable and outdated.
• Procurement spending must continue to rise incrementally to sustain our technological edge over potential adversaries.
• Because technological innovation will remain the driving force behind military transformation, the shrinking budget for defense R&D must be reversed
• The enormous Cold War-era defense infrastructure must be streamlined to stem the loss of resources that must be invested in future modernization needs.
• As defense firms downsize rapidly and consolidate as a result of declining defense budgets in the post-Cold War era, the government must provide stable procurement budgets to sustain a robust defense industry.
• The current "Army Vision" to be able to deploy a brigade anywhere in the world in four days, a division in five days, and five divisions in thirty days does not go far enough.

The conference was organized by the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, together with the International Security Studies Program of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University with the co-sponsorship of the Chief of Staff, U.S. Army and the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Net Assessment.

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