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2017-03-07

Strategic Issues: National Reach

By: Dr. John R.Ballard

Dean of National Defence College

Many analysts talk about the complexity of modern military operations but most fail to consider one of the most important aspects of employing national power: strategic National Reach. Strategy is about power and power is directly related to each nation’s ability to focus and project its resources to achieve desired effects over time. Effective security in our globalized age requires many attributes, but a great example set by of the UAE has been its deft judgment in the projection of national power in accordance with its national capacity.

National Reach is the capacity for a nation to concentrate and employ its power decisively over distance and over a period of years. National Reach is influenced by geography and duration; it can be extended by locating forces, bases, and logistics outside national boundaries, by increasing the strategic range of weapon systems, by improving transportation availability and the effectiveness of lines of communications and throughput, and by developing enduring and dependable sources of supply.

Still, for any given effort, there is a finite range beyond which a nation cannot effectively maintain effective operations; exceeding that range results in ineffective or even risky operations. Thus, managing the use of force over distance and through time is an indispensable foundation for long term use of national power and influence. The arrangement and timing of every national effort must be judged in light of the totality of national resources, the time it will take to accomplish the desired effects, the risk that other conflicting requirements may become necessary over time and the relative priority of any one effort in relation to other concurrent national actions.

All nations must make such decisions wisely. Even a superpower such as the United States was forced by the exigencies of resources to judge whether it could maintain sufficient power in both the Middle East and East Asian regions; thus the decision to undertake the “Pivot to Asia” by the Obama Administration. In another example, the United States is now reinvigorating its funding for defense as a consequence of nearly 15 years of conflict, which has weakened its ability to project power.

The UAE on the other hand has demonstrated notable wisdom in its past decisions concerning the use of its national power around the world. Other nations were amazed that the UAE was able to participate in the first Iraq Conflict in the 1990s and has since used its national military power so effectively in places as distant as Libya, Bosnia and Afghanistan. More recently the strategic decision to moderate the use of military power in the ongoing conflict in Yemen has demonstrated real wisdom in the management of costs and risks while employing national power.

The future management of strategic National Reach will remain difficult. We can already see known opponents such as Da’esh evolving in new ways to threaten the status quo; the UAE is certain to experience both challenges and opportunities for use of its national power. There can be no doubt that the evolving world order will continue to test the UAE, but its ability to judge the reach of its power, over distance and time, will undoubtedly continue to serve it well. The key will continue to be managing risk in a very uncertain world, focusing on the true national interests of the nation and developing the best resourceable strategies to leverage its power and influence while retaining essential national capacity to react elsewhere if required.

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