Stability Operations and Engineer Doctrine

Stability Operations are the key to ensuring the better state of peace after a range of conflicts. Since the end of the cold war, the U.S. military has engaged in operations ranging from peacekeeping to major combat operations in support of political goals. However, our doctrine remains focused on the force-on-force combat of the cold war era. The lesson learned throughout the 1990s, reinforced in Iraq, is the capability to conduct stability operations must become a core mission of the U.S. government and the U.S. military in particular. This paper contends that Joint Engineers are a critical component of military stability operations but Joint Engineer doctrine doesn't reflect the importance of this mission. Reviews of joint and service doctrine, service publications, and lessons learned from Operation IRAQI FREEDOM provided the basis for this assertion. Specific doctrine deficiencies and strengths are identified and analyzed. The paper offers several specific recommendations to address the doctrinal deficiencies.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.