ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to give the author's views on the application of joint and multinational military force in the new international environment. It looks at trends in the areas of national security; and future military challenges for the US, a view of operations other than war and its leadership and technological implications. The chapter deals with operational criteria for the use of military force. National security in a dynamic, changing world is complicated by two divergent trends. The first is toward democratic states and free markets. The other trend is toward the disintegration of sovereign and mutually respectful nation-states. There are a number of destabilizing factors at work in the world today that contribute to a pessimistic view of an unstable world. The national leadership should carefully consider the use of political, economic, psychological, and informational elements of power prior to commitment of US military forces.
