The new and uncertain strategic environment requires flexible defense strategies and capabilities for both war and peace. It
They will hammer their swords into plowshares, their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift sword against nation, there will be no more training for war.
Isaiah 2:4
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.Matthew 24:7
The new and uncertain strategic environment requires flexible defense strategies and capabilities for both war and peace. It is a time for both swords and plowshares. Military operations other than war require non-combat capabilities that complement warfighting; both civil-military and military-to-military capabilities must be as constructive as warfighting is destructive. Civil-military activities require the civilian soldiers of civil affairs (CA); and military-to-military missions that promote democracy, human rights, and the rule of law offer military lawyers an expanded operational role. All require diplomat warriors who are as comfortable wielding plowshares as swords.
These concepts are recognized in military doctrine but are not yet real capabilities. If operations other than war are to be a strategic option, there must be personnel within the Total Force to conduct them according to the requirements and principles of military legitimacy. Creating these new capabilities in a time of downsizing will require changes in military priorities, and change does not come easily to the world's largest bureaucracy.
One strategist aware of this bureaucratic inertia has predicted that Congress will rely on the reserve components for domestic and civil-military activities:
Given the current domestic situation, it is becoming increasingly clear to members of Congress, Senator Nunn for example, that there is a significant role for the military to play in accepting peacetime missions that can lead to strengthening America. There is a strong institutional bias within the Army against involvement in such missions.
... in the tuture, it is the USAR portion of the Federal Army that is structured and deployed to take on the domestic nation assistance directed by the Congress and the President.1