The Global War on Terrorism

Within days of the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, the President made the War on Terrorism the nation's top priority. It was immediately clear that this shift in priorities would have sweeping implications for the United States Army. A group of RAND Arroyo Center researchers engaged in a series of structured intellectual explorations to determine what the implications of this new global War on Terrorism would be for the Army. Researchers addressed two primary questions: What demands would the war on terrorism place on the Army, and what responses might it consider? This paper summarizes the conclusions of the RAND researchers, who found five main demands that the Army must be able to meet: (1) increased deployments; (2) a broader range of force capabilities -- special operations to conventional forces; (3) greater use of the transformation process to meet the requirements for more capable yet mobile light forces that can be easily tailored as well as special operations forces; (4) personnel with scarce specialty skills that are in high demand to meet competing demands from the War on Terrorism and homeland security; and (5) a more flexible overseas basing structure. Much of this analysis was done shortly after operations in Afghanistan commenced in 2001. However, in the intervening period some aspects of the work were further developed analytically. Also, where appropriate, reference to official U.S. policy documents bearing on the War on Terrorism are now included. These documents did not exist when this work was originally completed. Finally, in the context of the War on Terrorism, the war with Iraq and subsequent occupation of the country are addressed where appropriate. (20 refs.).