U.S. Military Attitudes Toward Post-Cold War Missions

Abstract

In this article, we seek to determine whether officers support the post-Cold War's range of new missions and why. To this end, we examine the attitudes of U.S. officers at the command and staff colleges for each service branch. On average, we find that while officers support traditional missions more than new missions, they do support these new missions and believe they address the greatest dangers facing the U.S. We also find that officers are more likely to appreciate the importance of military participation in humanitarian assistance, antiterrorism, and drug interdiction when they serve in a noncombat role, and those who believe that their MOS leads to future career success are more likely to support peace enforcement and peacekeeping. Most significantly, officers' enthusiasm about new missions is linked to their beliefs about civilian attitudes. On average, officers believe that the president supports the entire range of missions. They see Congress and (especially) the public as more suspicious of new missions. Officers are most likely to support new post-Cold War missions when they also believe there is both congressional and public support for them.