The commanding general of the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, Gen. William S. Wallace, unveiled new Army doctrine today, Oct. 6, at the annual meeting of the Assoc. of the U. S. Army in Washington. The new stability operations manual, Field Manual 3-07, puts stability operations into doctrine after it was recently introduced in FM 3-0, Operations, where its importance was elevated to the same level as offensive and defensive operations.

Today, our nation faces an environment of persistent conflict and uncertainty. The character of this environment is unlike any other in recent American history, where military forces operating among the people of world decide the major battles and engagements. Here, the margin of victory is measured in far different terms from the wars of our past.


…Given the complexities of the future operating environment, the Army must look at the different ways the elements of national power (military, economic, diplomatic and information) are employed. Military success alone will not be sufficient to prevail during a time of protracted confrontation among state, non-state, and individual actors fueled by expanding religious extremism, competition for energy, globalization outcomes, climate and demographic changes, and the increased use of violence to achieve political and ideological ends.

"Stability operations is part of the entire military-planning process," said Caldwell. "Some people are talking about pre-emptive stability operations. They are doing that because we literally need to plan for and resource it before military operations begin."

This isn't something new to the Army or the U.S. military. … What's new is the focus that these tasks are addressed before, rather than after, conflict, and conducted within the context of peacetime.