Joint Warfighting in the Twenty-First Century

To avoid surprise on the battlefield, the US military's approach to war in the twenty-first century must reconcile what is changing with what endures in war. A commander must be able to diagnose the alternatives open to him, recognize the strategic and operational implications of adopting one or some combination, and apply available resources most effectively to the methods selected. The authors examined past military transformations in three areas: professional military education, logistics, and command and control. The results were a framework and principles that can guide the development of joint operational concepts. A joint operational concept should meet the criteria of (1) providing guidelines to design operational campaigns in a variety of situations; (2) enabling exploration of alternative capabilities introduced over time; and (3) informing experimentation campaigns and investment decisions. Using a joint operational concept as a tool for force development will not constrain armed forces rigidly to a single method to the exclusion of all others.