U.s. Army Command and General Staff College

America's Transitional Capacity: War, Systems, and Globalization (Defense) U.s. Army Command and General Staff College

The ideas of peace, freedom, basic level of human rights, and free markets abroad are deeply rooted in America?s foreign policy objectives. The United States selectively uses its military as a means to implement these ideas abroad. However, the American way of war creates extremely complex challenges for the transition period between dominating an enemy force, and creating a stabilized free and prosperous host nation. There are no set principles or checklists for transitional periods or even a set point in time where all operations transition from the dominate phase to the stability phase. Unlike World War II, operations in Iraq failed to successfully transition from Phase III dominate operations to Phase IV stability operations. During this ?golden hour? of transition, coalition efforts failed to increase Iraq?s internal governmental control due to a lack of comprehensive interagency and intergovernmental planning before the war started. Unintended side effects of certain unsynchronized operations and decisions inhibited the transitional period and the ability to maintain control in later phases.