"Fortissimus Inter Pares"

L andpower is financially costly, politically contentious, exacts a high human price, and impossible to assess until after the fact. It is of apparently questionable value for preserving security in unstable states or maintaining the benefits of kinetic operations. It has been a truism for sixty years never to conduct a major land war in Asia. As Secretary of Defense Robert Gates suggested to an audience at West Point, one also might now add the Middle East and even Africa to that admonition. 1 The list of potential theaters of operations seems to be growing thin, increasingly restricted to regions where major war appears unlikely to occur in the near future, where landpower is apparently unnecessary. Has landpower lost its utility? Will landpower be circumscribed to increasingly smaller roles, lighter footprints, and more limited missions? The expenses and dangers of employing landpower are genuine

Economics · Grand strategy · Law and economics · Political economy · Political science · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Military and Defense Studies · Military History and Strategy

• Strategy

  Edward Luttwak•Strategy•2002

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