Building Flexible Forces for the 21st Century: Key Challenges for the Contemporary Armed Services

Abstract

The post-Cold War security landscape has led to a search for more flexible armed forces among Western industrial states, a trend that the events of September 11th can surely only accentuate. In building flexible forces, states need to be careful in thinking through the two meanings of flexibility that have underpinned the above discussion if they are to avoid the paradoxical outcome of an inflexible defence organization produced through a concern to be prepared for very scenario thrown up by an uncertain world. To avoid this paradox, national states will be constrained to work more and more cooperatively with one another: multinationality is as important as jointery as future organizational and cultural trends for the armed services. In developing multinational approaches to flexible forces delicate issues of role specialization will need to be addressed. This process will allow national and historical differences as to where comparative advantage lies among national members of the NATO Alliance, the EU, and “coalitions of the willing” to come into play.