ABSTRACT
The USA has been the dominant military power in the post-Cold War era and the underpinning for the Western-led international order. Transformation has been regarded by the politico-military elite as a means to ensure the continuing supremacy of the USA. This chapter argues that the US armed forces have pursued a transformation agenda focused on their ability to fight inter-state war. A new set of priorities became the watchwords of transformation in which political decision makers would be provided with a range of options over the type of effects that they might want to inflict upon an adversary. In the 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), transformation was declared to be 'at the heart' of the new approach. The US Air Force was in the best position to benefit from the transformation debate after 1989. It had been at the forefront of efforts to generate a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) in relation to Soviet power during the Cold War.
