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1 1 (August 11, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/goveehm0001 and id is 1 raw text is: $ Santa Fw~ ~v fr1a~ & en ~914 Updated August 11, 2021 Defense Primer: Geography, Strategy, and U.S. Force Design World geography is an influence on U.S. strategy, which in turn helps shapethe design of U.S. military forces. World Geography and U.S. Strategy Most ofthe world's people, resources, and economic activity are locatednotin the Western Hemisphere, but in the otherhemisphere, particularly Eurasia. In response to this basic feature of world geography, U.S.policymakers for the last several decades have chosen to pursue, as a key element ofU.S. national strategy, a goalof preventing the emergence ofregionalhegemons in Eurasia. This objective reflects a U.S. perspective on geopolitics and grand strategy developed by U.S. strategists and policy makers during and in the years immediately after World WarfIthat incorporates two key judgments: that given the amount of people, resources, and economic activity in Eurasia, a regionalhegemon in Eurasia would represent a concentration of power large enough to be able to threaten vital U.S. interests; and that Eurasia is not dependably self-regulating in term of preventing the emergenceofregional hegemons, meaning that the countries of Eurasia cannot be counted on to be fully able to prevent, though their own choices and actions, the emergence ofregionalhegemons, and may need assistancefromone ormore countries outside Eurasia to be able to do this dependably. Preventing the emergence ofregionalhegemons in Eurasia is sometimes also referred to as preserving a division of power in Eurasia, or as preventing key regions in Eurasia from coming under the dominationof a single power, or as preventing the emergence of a spheres-of-influence world, which could be a consequence of the emergence of one or more regional hegemons in Eurasia. The Trump Administration's December2017 national security strategy document states thatthe United States will compete with all tools ofnationalpower to ensure that regions of the world are not dominated by one power. Although U.S.policymakers do not often state explicitly in public the goal of preventing the emergence ofregional hegemons in Eurasia, U.S. military operations in World War I and World War II, as well as numerous U.S. military wartime and day -to-day operations since World War II (and nonmilitary elements ofU.S. nationalstrategy since World War II), appear to havebeen carried out in no small part in support of this goal. US. Strategy and Force Design The goalofpreventing the emergence ofregionalhegennns in Eurasia is a major reason whythe U.S. military is structured with force elements that enable it to deploy from the United States, cross broad expanses of ocean and air space, andthen conduct sustained, large-scale military operations upon arriv al in Eurasia or the waters and airspace surrounding Eurasia. Force elements associated with this objective include, among other things: An Air Force with significant numbers oflong-range bombers, long-range surveillance aircraft, and aerial refueling tankers. A Navy with significant numbers of aircraft carriers, nuclear-powered (as opposed to non-nuclear-powered) attacks ubmarines, large surface combatants, large amphibious ships, and underway replenishment ships. Significant numbers oflong-range Air Force airlift aircraft and Military Sealift Command sealift ships for transporting ground forces personnel and their equipment and supplies rapidly over long distances. Consistent with a goal ofbeing able to conductsustained, large-scale military operations in Eurasia or the oceans and airspace surrounding Eurasia, the United States also stations significant numbers offorces and supplies in forward locations in Europe, the Persian Gulf, and the Indo-Pacific. On February 4, 2021, President Biden announced that Defense Secretary Austin will be leading a Global Posture Review of our forces so that our military footprint is appropriately aligned with our foreign policy and national security priorities. DOD stated that the review will examine the U.S. military's footprint, resources and strategies andwilluse American defense strategy and look where service members are based, and if this is the best place to be based. Comparing U.S. Forces to Other Countries' Forces The United States is the only country in the world that designs its military to depart one hemisphere, cross broad expanses of ocean and air space, and then conduct sustained, large-scale military operations upon arrival in another hemisphere. The other countries in the Western Hemisphere do notdesign their forces to do this because they cannot afford to, and because the United States is, in effect, doing it for them. Countries in the other hemisphere do not design their forces to do this for the verybasic reason that they are already in the other hemisphere, and consequently instead spendtheirdefensemoneyprimarily on forces that are tailored largely for influencing events in their own localregions of thathemisphere. (Some countries, such as Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and France, have an ability to deploy forces to distant locations, but only on a much smaller scale.) The fact that the United States designs its military to do something that other countries do not design their forces to https://crsrepc

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