ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors discuss how to apply what they learned in the United States–Soviet confrontation to the management of the new low-intensity engagements. The gravity of the authors ideological rivalry with the Soviet Union linked to the risk of thermonuclear war led this country to devote much of its best intellectual capability to winning the Cold War. The integration of ideas and structures linked by a cooperative atmosphere and sustained by a public consensus that saw through the Cold War is lacking. For various reasons the foreign policy community seems hesitant to grapple with when and where the United States should commit resources in the low-intensity arena. The multitude of United States government agencies necessary to succeed in low-intensity conflicts, such as the counternarcotics program, are brought together effectively only at the National Security Council, and after dropping 20 bureaucratic layers, at the level of a country team in a United States mission.
