Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 07/2008

Two Decades Late

Frederick W. Kagan

June 2008

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

Abstract

In their new book, Ground Truth: The Future of U.S. Land Power, AEI's Thomas Donnelly and Frederick W. Kagan argue that if the United States is to maintain its status as the sole superpower, American land power must be restructured to confront unprecedented challenges. Kagan expands on the subject in this article by discussing a military system that was geared to fight a single enemy--the Soviet Union--with relatively even balances between services and theaters of operations. The 1986 military reorganization made some improvements, he says, but the military is still poorly structured for the kind of wars we are likely to face.