Inside Defense
Feb. 4, 2010 -- Pentagon officials plan to conduct a study examining America's defense posture abroad in light of a new "architecture of cooperation" with key allies outlined in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review.
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy mentioned the follow-on review Feb. 2 during a talk at the Washington office of the Council on Foreign Relations. She said the study could lead officials to “tweak” some moves resulting from the last global posture review, done in 2004, while validating others from the Rumsfeld-era drill. Results of the new study would influence the fiscal year 2012 defense budget request, Flournoy said. That request will go to Congress one year from now.
The 2004 Integrated Global Presence and Basing Strategy, as it is known in Pentagon jargon, spurred plans to redeploy or bring back to the United States up to 70,000 troops stationed across Europe and Asia. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, defense officials believed the American troops were no longer needed overseas to contain Moscow.
Flournoy this week said the decision to take a “fresh look” at the U.S. defense posture comes partly in light of the “events in the last couple of years in Georgia” -- an apparent allusion to the Russian-Georgian war in August 2008. The Georgian government strives for full membership in NATO, a goal Russian leaders oppose vehemently.
Pentagon officials want to ensure any new U.S. posture strategy for Europe fits into NATO's upcoming “strategic concept,” which alliance leaders will craft throughout the year, Flournoy said. Operations in Afghanistan, where the Europeans contribute personnel and equipment, also will factor into the debate, she added.
The QDR divides the U.S. defense posture into three components: forward-stationed and rotationally deployed forces, capabilities and equipment; an overseas network of infrastructure and facilities; and a “series of treaty, access, transit and status-protection agreements and arrangements” with partner countries.
Flournoy noted several decisions already made at the outset of the new basing review. “For the moment,” she said, four Army brigade combat teams will remain stationed in Europe. In addition, U.S. base realignment plans in Japan would remain in place, she added.
In the Western Pacific region, officials will begin looking at training facilities where indigenous armies and U.S. forces can exercise together, according to Flournoy. Identifying such facilities is “one of the things we can do better at,” she said.
“It is too soon to highlight specific locations for training or other changes as any potential change to our posture will be made in consultation with our interagency counterparts as well as our allies in our 'go slow and consult' policy,” Janine Davidson, who leads the new posture study, told InsideDefense.com in an e-mail today. Davidson is the deputy assistant secretary of defense for plans.
The review aims to “operationalize” the idea of a “cooperate and tailored approach” formulated in the QDR, Davidson told reporters today at the National Press Club in Washington. The approach entails crafting posture strategies based on the individual security situation in each region around the world. “We don't want to make major movements . . . without consulting the allies that we're there to support and work with,” she said.
Under the auspices of U.S. Pacific Command, U.S. forces routinely conduct joint exercises with the armies of numerous Asia-Pacific countries, including Cambodia, Bangladesh, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, India, Malaysia and Mongolia.
At the time of the IGPBS, several lawmakers and experts rejected key assumptions of the study, fearing the removal of forces from Europe could hamper U.S. efforts to engage in successful diplomacy on the continent. A Dec. 3, 2009, draft version of the 2010 QDR, obtained by InsideDefense.com, explicitly notes shortcomings of the 2004 strategy. The final document, released this week, omits these sections.
The Pentagon's new tack on global basing issues -- casting defense posture as an instrument of cooperative security policy -- is reminiscent of a viewpoint articulated by the congressionally mandated Overseas Basing Commission in 2005. The now-defunct panel warned against the hasty implementation of IGPBS decisions, arguing a large-scale recall of DOD forces to the continental United States should be better coordinated with the rest of the government.
At the time, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's policy staff -- which included Kathleen Hicks, now Flournoy's deputy under secretary of defense for strategy, plans and forces -- vigorously rejected the panel's views. -- Sebastian Sprenger