The Theory And Practice Of Associative Power

Download or read book The Theory and Practice of Associative Power written by Stephen B. Young and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-06-19 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To succeed in achieving its national security objectives the United States needs to use Associative Power in place of both Hard Power and Soft Power. Associative Power is the use of joint ventures and alliances to optimize the forms of power brought to bear in conflicts responding with precision to a spectrum of enemy threats, situational challenges, and political opportunities. Associative Power was wisely and successfully used by the United States in the Vietnam War through the CORDS program of counter insurgency and village development to defeat the Viet Cong insurgency and permit the withdrawal of American combat forces. Associative power was not used by the United States—nor was the best counter insurgency practices of CORDS—in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. As a result of this omission, interim outcomes in Iraq and Afghanistan did not acceptably accomplish American objectives.