ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the challenge of achieving unity of effort as a part of political-military theory that is at once empirical and normative. It focuses on three specific problems based on classical writing and observed recent events. Three specific problems are: multiservice, or joint, issues; the civil-military arena; and multinational challenges in settings of mature alliances and ad hoc coalitions. The principal vehicle for conducting a joint operation is what is known as a joint task force. By doctrine, the joint task force is an organization made up of two or more services for an operation of limited duration. In modem conflict, the joint game will hardly be the only one in town. Rather, for US forces involved in the conflicts of the post-Cold War age there has been and will continue to be a bewildering array of governmental and nongovernmental players.
