The Post-Cold War Era, 1991 onwards.

 

           With the collapse of the Warsaw Treaty Organisation (WTO) and the dissolution of the SU after the failed coup, August 1991, the US faced the another problem - the lack of a coherent American foreign policy. There is no clear consensus in the US over the threats to the security and economic well-being of the US.[54]

           Bush administration’s emphasis was on prudence and pragmatism. The Bush record of six military interventions in four years is remarkable.[55] In the invasion of Panama (Operation Just Came) in December 1989, the Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm) in January and February 1991, and the intervention in Somalia in 1992 (Operation Restore Hope), the US was motivated by the desire to impose order in the international system.[56]

           But neither the foreign nor the defense policy of the Clinton administration is yet well defined.[57] Through the 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton emphasized the following new priorities for the post-Cold War American foreign policy: (1) to relink foreign and domestic policies; (2) the reassertion of “the moral principles most Americans share”; (3) to understand that American security is largely economic.[58] He also campaigned for the restructuring US military forces. The new military force must be capable of: (1) nuclear deterrence; (2) rapid deployment; (3) technology; and (4) better intelligence.[59]

           As president, Clinton directed Secretary of Defense Les Aspin to conduct a review of military requirements. In September 1, 1993, the Clinton administration’s first defense planning document named “Bottom-Up Review” (BUR) was announced. The BUR identifies four major sources of danger to US security: (1) aggression instigated by major regional powers; (2) the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; (3) the failure of former communist states to make a succesful transition to democracy; (4) a failure to maintain a strong and growing US economic base.[60] (Recently, one more danger has been added: “transnational threats.”[61] The BUR offers a force structure oriented around three general missions: (1) waging two “nearly simultaneous” major regional conflicts (the two-MRC requirement); (2) conducting peace operations; and (3) maintaining forward presence in areas where the US has vital interests.[62] The BUR accords significant weight to maintaining the overseas military presence of US forces in sizing America’s post-Cold War force structure. The plan is to retain roughly 100,000 troops in Europe and some 98,000 troops in East Asia.[63]

           The BUR received a lot of criticims since it was announced. “There is no logical flow from the “top” - political guidance based on the imperative to protect US interests in a new security environment - to the “bottom”, i.e., planned forces.”[64] The other problem that “there are grounds for suspecting that the force structure selected for the late 1990s is geared more to meet fiscal goals than strategic ones.”[65]

           So, it is obvious that the end of the Cold War was not the end of the threats for US national security , and not the end of the problems for the US defense planners. More, it seems that it was easier to deal with one big threat rather than with a complex of relatively small threats.

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

1. Brown, S., The Faces of Power: Constancy and Change in United States Foreign Policy from Truman to Reagan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983)

2. Clark, M.T., ‘The Future of Clinton’s Foreign and Defense Policy: Multilateral Security’, Comparative Strategy, Vol.13, 1994, pp.181-195

3. Foerster, Sch., ‘The United States as a World Power: An Overview’, in Foerster, Sch. and Wright, E.N. (eds.), American Defense Policy (6th. ed. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1990) pp.165-187

4. Gaddis, J.L., Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982)

5. Gray, C.S., ‘Off the Map: Defense Planning After the Soviet Threat’, Strategic Review, Spring 1994, pp.26-35

6.Kegley, Ch.W. and Wittkopf, E.R., American Foregn Policy: Pattern and Process (3rd. ed. London: Macmillan, 1987)

7. Korb, L.J., ‘The United States’, in Murray, D.J. and Viotti, P.R. (eds.), The Defense Policies of Nations (3rd. ed. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1994), pp.19-56

8. Krepinevich, A.F., ‘The Clinton Defense Program: Assessing the Bottom-Up Review’, Strategic Review, Spring 1994, pp.15-25

9.Leffler, M.P., ‘National Security and US Foreign Policy’, in Leffler, M.P. and Painter, D.S. (eds.), Origins of the Cold War: An International History (London: Routledge, 1994), pp.15-52

10. Nitze, P.H., ‘Grand Strategy Then and Now: NSC-68 and its Lessons for the Future’, Strategic Review, Winter 1994, pp.12-19

11. Sullivan, R.S., ‘Dealing with the Soviets’, in Foerster, Sch. and Wright, E.N. (eds.), American Defense Policy (6th. ed. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1990), pp.165-187

12. Trachtenberg, M., ‘American Policy and Shifting Nuclear Balance’, in Leffler, M.P. and Painter, D.S. (eds.), Origins of the Cold War: An International History (London: Routledge, 1994), pp.107-122

13. Walker, M., The Cold War: And the Making of the Modern World (London: Vintage, 1994)

14. Williams, Ph., ‘U.S. Defense Policy’, in Baylis, J., Booth, K., Garnett, J., and Williams, Ph., Contemporary Strategy. Volume 2: The Nuclear Powers (2nd. ed. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1987), pp.28-55

 

 

[1] Kegley, Ch.W. and Wittkopf, E.R., American Foreign Policy: Pattern and Process (3rd. ed. London: Macmillan, 1987), p.56

[2] Korb, L.J., ‘The United States’, in Murray, D.J. and Viotti, P.R. (eds.), The Defense Policies of Nations (3rd. ed. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1994), p.30

[3] Foerster, Sch., ‘The United States as a World Power: An Overview’, in Foerster, Sch. and Wright, E.N. (eds.), American Defense Policy (6th. ed. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1990), p.152

[4] Gaddis, J.L., Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), p.10

[5] Ibid., p.18

[6] Brown, S., The Faces of Power: Constancy and Change in United States Foreign Policy from Truman To Reagan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983), p.31

[7] Ibid., p.34

[8] Leffler, M.P., ‘National Security and US Foreign Policy’, in Leffler, M.P. and Painter, D.S. (eds.), Origins of the Cold War: An International History (London: Routledge, 1994), p.23

[9] Walker, M., The Cold War: And the Making of the Modern World (London: Vintage, 1994), p.59

[10] Kegley, Ch.W. and Wittkopf, E.R., op.cit., p.56

[11] Ibid., p.58

[12] Ibid., p.58

[13] Sullivan, R.S., ‘Dealing with the Soviets’, in Foerster, Sch. and Wright, E.N. (eds.), American Defense Policy (6th. ed. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1990), p.165

[14] Ibid., p.169

[15] Ibid., p.170

[16] Leffler, M.P., op.cit., p.34

[17] Nitze, P.H., ‘Grand Strategy Then and Now: NSC-68 and its Lessons for the Future’, Strategic Review, Winter 1994, p.16

[18] Trachtenberg, M., ‘American Policy and the Shifting Nuclear Balance’, in Leffler, M.P. and Painter, D.S. (eds.), Origins of the Cold War: An International History (London: Routledge, 1994), p.113

[19] Williams, Ph., ‘US Defense Policy’, in Baylis, J., Booth, K., Garnett, J., and Williams, Ph., Contemporary Strategy. Volume 2: The Nuclear Powers (2nd. ed. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1987), p.34

[20] Brown, S., op.cit., p.58

[21] Korb, L.J., op.cit., p.27

[22] Sullivan, R.S., op.cit., p.172

[23] Kegley, Ch.W. and Wittkopf, E.R., op.cit., p.83

[24] Ibid., p.83

[25] Ibid., p.84

[26] Ibid., p.84

[27] Ibid., p.86

[28] Ibid., p.109

[29] Williams, Ph., op.cit., p.29

[30] Walker, M., op.cit., p.171

[31] Kegley, Ch.W. and Wittkopf, E.R., op.cit., p.61

[32] Ibid., p.63

[33] Gaddis, J.L., op.cit., p.289

[34] Ibid., p.298

[35] Ibid., pp.289-292

[36] Sullivan, R.S., op.cit., p.177

[37] Gaddis, J.L., op.cit., p.295

[38] Korb, L.J., op.cit., p.25

[39] Sullivan, R.S., op.cit., p.179

[40] Ibid., p.181

[41] Kegley, Ch.W. and Wittkopf, E.R., op.cit., p.65

[42] Ibid., p.65

[43] Sullivan, R.S., op.cit., p.181

[44] Kegley, Ch.W. and Wittkopf, E.R., op.cit., p.95

[45] Sullivan, R.S., op.cit., p.182

[46] Ibid., p.184

[47] Walker, M., op.cit., p.290

[48] Ibid., p.294

[49] Sullivan, R.S., op.cit., p.184

[50] Walker, M., op.cit., p.300

[51] Sullivan, R.S., op.cit., p.185

[52] Ibid., p.185

[53] Walker, M., op.cit., p.326

[54] Korb, L.J., op.cit., p.30

[55] Walker, M., op.cit., p.340

[56] Korb, L.J., op.cit., p.54

[57] Clark, M.T., ‘The Future of Clinton’s Foreign and Defense Policy: Multilateral Security’, Comparative Strategy, Vol.13, 1994, p.181

[58] Ibid., p.182

[59] Ibid., pp. 184-185

[60] Krepinevich, A.F., ‘The Clinton Defense Program: Assessing the Bottom-Up Review’, Strategic Review, Spring 1994, p.16

[61] Gray, C.S., ‘Off the Mapp: Defense Planning After the Soviet Threat’, Strategic Review, Spring 1994, p.31

[62] Krepinevich, A.F., op.cit., p.16

[63] Ibid., p.21

[64] Ibid., p.34

[65] Gray, C.S., op.cit., p.33