Standing Joint Task Forces: Commands Now Needed

Abstract

STANDING JOINT TASK FORCES: COMMANDS NOW NEEDED by MAJ Craig A. Osborne, U.S. Army, 65 pages.As the 21 st century emerges, the U.S. will face threats that are more ambiguous and regionally focused than those found in previous years. This monograph seeks to determine if the U.S. military would be better prepared to conduct contingency operations if each geographic combatant commander established regionally-focused, contingency-based standing JTF headquarters. After analyzing the current political and military environments, the author highlights the doctrinal guidance concerning JTFs and identifies the circumstances surrounding their formation. The three methods used to form JTFs in contingency operations are then analyzed, citing historical examples of each, and the advantages and disadvantages of each method are identified. The initiative of standing JTFs is then dissected through a similar analysis. The author determines that standing JTFs are more effective when considering staff synchronization, responsiveness, regional knowledge and understanding, interoperability, service biases, resources, and commander/staff expertise. The author concludes by making recommendations to mitigate the disadvantages found with the standing JTF initiative. Standing Joint Task Forces:Commands Now Needed As the 21 st century emerges, the U.S. will face threats that are more ambiguous and regionally focused than those found in previous years. This monograph seeks to determine if the U.S. military would be better prepared to conduct contingency operations if each geographic combatant commander established regionally-focused, contingency-based standing JTF headquarters. After analyzing the current political and military environments, the author highlights the doctrinal guidance concerning JTFs and identifies the circumstances surrounding their formation. The three methods used to form JTFs in contingency operations are then analyzed, citing historical examples of each, and the advantages and disadvantages of each method are identified. The initiative of standing JTFs is then dissected through a similar analysis. The author determines that standing JTFs are more effective when considering staff synchronization, responsiveness, regional knowledge and understanding, interoperability, service biases, resources, and commander/staff expertise. The author concludes by making recommendations to mitigate the disadvantages found with the standing JTF initiative.