ABSTRACT
The contemporary focus on Stability, Security, Transition, and Reconstruction (SSTR) activities is a direct result of the security environment that has emerged over the past two decades.1 With the decline of traditional threats such as interstate combat, or the prospect of blue-water naval engagements, the U.S. military, and the U.S. Navy in particular, have had to reassess many aspects of their force structure and operations. The new security environment is characterized by a sharp rise in non-traditional threats such as failed or failing states, global terrorist networks, and long-term insurgencies that attack both civilian and state targets. The U.S. military has had to reposition itself and its assets to meet this changed security environment. For its part, the U.S. Navy has discovered that blue-water operations do not figure prominently in this new threat environment.
