The Air Power Expeditionary Force: A Strategy for an Uncertain Future?

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Contrary to initial expectations, the end of the Cold War has not resulted in a spontaneous outbreak of international peace and stability. While the nuclear threat has diminished, previously suppressed ethnic and nationalistic rivalries have boiled over and become additive to existing trouble spots in Korea and Southwest Asia. In spite of these challenges, defense spending and military forward presence have declined as the lack of a peer competitor has our deprived national security strategy of a definable threat. The Air Expeditionary Force (AEF) is an attempt to deal with the uncertainty of the current volatile world by improving the responsiveness of airpower. However, in terms of future security challenges, the AEF focus appears to be too narrow. Although current planning AEF operations in response to a major theater of war, the most probable use of an AEF will most in a non-combat role supporting humanitarian or peacekeeping operations. In both types of AEFs, the personnel and leadership skills, as well as composition of this type of AEF will be markedly different than a combat style AEF. This paper begins by reviewing the international and domestic context that has caused the Air Force to focus on expeditionary operations. It then discusses the historical roots of the AEF and the current AEF employment philosophy. The paper concludes by identifying courses of action that should keep the AEF viable in an uncertain international environment.