Combined Arms Maneuver, Wide Area Security, and Dynamic Capabilities

The military commitments of the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq are ending. The present economic and political challenges have left the defense department with a significantly reduced budget. The reduction in spending impacts the three pillars of strategic execution: personnel, doctrine, and materiel. With reduced resources for critical training and acquisitions, the "billpayer" must be an increase in the level of acceptable risk that our country is willing to carry. To mitigate these risks, the Army has chosen to conduct Combined Arms Maneuver (CAM) and Wide Area Security (WAS) core competencies. This paper considers the Army's decision to simultaneously execute both responsibilities, and proposes a novel framework for considering operational risk. These commitments reflect a static view of strategic risk and capabilities that is at best anachronistic, at worst a path to nowhere. The reduction in funding, manning and training resources will not allow the Army to do both efficiently. This paper proposes that instead of seeking a certain level of competence in discrete, strategic capabilities, the Army needs to build and to leverage its dynamic capabilities-in essence, build its ability to rapidly develop capabilities that match emergent strategic needs.