Bertel Heurlin
To lange krige – Amerikanske forsvarsvisioner ifølge Quadrennial Defense Review 2006

- English summary

The article is an interpretation and an analysis of the American Quadennial Defense Review, QDR, published February 2006.  QDR is required by Congress and contains Pentagons state of affairs for the US military power and visions for the future twenty years.  QDR 2006 is in many ways a snapshot in a continuum of military transformation beginning at the end of the cold war, sharpened in September 11, 2001 and to be carried on into a future more unpredictable and insecure than ever. But there are novelties in the QDR: The term “the Long War”, the global war on terror – in direct analogy with the Cold War – is introduced. Likewise other political strategies are announced: the strategy of shaping the future choices of key states, like China. Analytically the following apparent dilemmas are examined: whether the US should 1:  prioritize the long war on terror or the other coming long war via-a-vis potential superpowers, 2: prioritize the traditional Revolution in military affairs, RMA, or the terror related RMA, 3: prioritize warfighting forces or stabilization, security and reconstruction forces, and 4: prioritize nuclear weapons or conventional forces.