The Future of American Landpower

The U.S. Army performs a number of critical mis-sions across the vast Indo-Asia-Pacific region. These include underwriting deterrence, building coalition capability, strengthening institutional capacity among partner defense establishments, maintaining interop-erability, promoting military professionalism, build-ing operational access, and conducting humanitarian assistance missions.



The time has come for a reappraisal of the U.S. Army's forward presence in East Asia, given the evolving strategic context and the extraordinarily high, recurring costs of deploying U.S. Army forces from the 50 states for increasingly important security cooperation activities across the Indo-Asia-Pacific theater. Without unduly harming America's commitment to deterrence on the Korean peninsula, a reconfigured Army forward presence could help to achieve U.S. objectives throughout the theater more effectively through more regular, longer-duration engagement with critical allies and partners, while reducing the recurring transportation costs associated with today's practice of sending U.S.-based units to conduct most exercises and training events across the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. Certainly, there are some major challenges involved in reconfiguring the Army's forward presence, but these are not insurmountable. Furthermore, to avoid trying would severely limit the effectiveness and the efficiency of the Army's contribution to broader U.S. national security goals.

The Strategic Studies Institute is pleased to offer this monograph as a contribution to the ongoing national discussion on the role of the U.S. Army and the manner in which it can best serve the Nation today and in the future. U.S. policy makers, historians, military personnel, and citizens and militaries residing in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region may have an interest in this work. Undergraduate and graduate students in military science, international studies, and global affairs programs may find this resource helpful, especially for term papers relating to the U.S. Army's peacekeeping activities and future endeavors in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

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