ABSTRACT
The strategic culture of the Cold War combined great eagerness to accumulate weapons with great caution in their use. With the end of the Cold War, the armed forces, military expenditures, fear of nuclear attack, and learned habits of restraint are all much diminished. Disputes over minor diplomatic aims or mere posturing for domestic constituencies are enough to provoke reckless displays of bellicosity or imprudence. US military policy must also prepare for possible drastic changes in the strategic environment, including the emergence of situations that would require the large-scale use of ground forces and the toleration of high casualties. A wholesale recalibration of US military policy is needed to shift money and resources to the forces actually usable, at the expense of the less usable. The urgency of redefining the priorities of US military policy is to yield forces that can be deployed more readily for discretionary interventions. To fight only when necessity compels is the attribute of small powers.
