A Framework for Strategy Development

The U.S. military strategy of Shape, Respond, Prepare Now was developed during the course of the 1997 Quadrennial Defense Review. Specifically, this strategy stated that the DoD had an essential role to play in shaping the international security environment, that it must be capable of responding to the full spectrum of crises, and that it needed to be preparing now for an uncertain future. With slight modifications, this QDR strategy remained the rationale for the employment of U.S. military forces until late 2001. This strategy, as defined more extensively in the Report of the Quadrennial Defense Review (Cohen, 1997) and subsequent defense reports, had many virtues: It was defined broadly enough to encompass the spectrum of military operations from peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance through high-intensity warfare, it had a prominent focus on future challenges, and it made explicit the important role of the military in deterring conflict.