Principles for Coalition Warfare

Past experience and military potentialities destine the United States to lead a disproportionate share of future multilateral coalitions, a challenge that is compounded by the need for doctrine to conduct joint operations in a combined environment. Four tenets go far toward achieving success in a coalition war: agility which calls for maintaining balance and force in shifting situations while striking in fleeting windows of opportunity, initiative which means dominating the terms of battle and thus depriving the enemy of that same option, depth which considers every dimension of war and envelops the entire spectrum of events across time and space, and synchronization which applies combat power both at the optimum moment and in the right place while controlling a myriad of simultaneous actions. But no commonly accepted doctrine for coalition warfare exists today. Any multinational operation will require planning by all the participants, interoperability, shared risks and burdens, emphasis on commonalties, and diffused credit for success. Published in Joint Force Quarterly (JFQ), p58-71, Summer 1993.