Campaign Plans, Military Strategy, and Policy Objectives The Imperative for Linkage in U.S. Defense Planning

This monograph identifies a void in the strategic planning process of the United States and proposes a modified national security decisionmaking and implementation structure to improve the ability the U.S. to integrate the elements of national power. The modification creates regional organizations called Regional Security Staffs headed by Assistant National Security Advisors that directly support the President and the National Security Council in devising regional sub-strategies to enhance the accomplishment of U.S. global strategy. The Assistant National Security Advisor exercises "integrative" authority to cut across functional lines within the region. The importance of this modification is twofold. First, a survey of strategic planning done within the monograph reveals that there are certain elements of successful strategic planning. The survey examines why successful campaigns do not always lead to victory in war. The key is that strategic planning provides the link between policy, strategy, and campaigns by planning the integration of national power. The survey discusses how the U.S. has been unsuccessful in this area since the end of World War II despite the creation of the NSC. Second, the NSC currently relies on functional lines to implement but has no way of ensuring integration of all elements of power. This is due in large measure to the proliferation of regional responsibilities and interests of the U.S. The monograph derives eight essential elements of strategic planning from the historical survey and demonstrates how the modification proposed meets these imperatives. The proposal is then tested against the criteria of suitability, feasibility, flexibility, and acceptability to determine its utility. In conclusion, the paper covers the current disarray in U.S. strategic planning and discusses how planning, force structure, and budgeting would be affected in a positive manner by the proposed modification.