Strategic Direction For Joint Operations - 1640 Words

The security environment today is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA). The challenges presented by globalization, emerging powers as well as the continuing threat of terrorism indicate the future security environment will continue to gain complexity. Adding to this complexity is the challenge of increasingly constrained fiscal resources. To protect U.S. National Security interests in this complex and constrained environment, Joint Force 2025 (JF-2025) requires four core capabilities, it must be agile, adaptable, survivable and integrated. Supporting these capabilities requires proper balancing of the Joint Force. This essay discusses the impending environment, key strategic direction for JF-2025, the capabilities required by†¦show more content†¦The National Military Strategy of the United States articulates several specific challenges to U.S. National Security interests that will confront JF-2025. Russian aggression toward its neighbors and defiance of interna tional standards of behavior threatens stability in Europe. Iranian nuclear ambitions and support of terror imperils Israel and the Middle East. A bellicose and nuclear North Korea is a threat to America’s allies, Japan and the Republic of Korea. The emerging power of China offers both opportunities in the form of greater economic cooperation, but also challenges as they expand their military capabilities, menace Taiwan and make provocative claims in the South China Sea. Finally, violent extremist organizations (VEOs) such as ISIS and al-Qaida continue to degrade regional stability and threaten U.S. interests. The emergence of near-peer competitors like China and Russia and the threat of malign regional powers like Iran and North Korea continue to make inter-state war conceivable for JF-2025. The threat posed by VEOs and failing or failed states continues to foster regional instability making overseas contingency operations a likely possibility. In between these on the â€Å"continuum of conflict† is â€Å"hybrid conflict† which combines conventional and non-conventional forces employing both traditional military