Established in the spring of 1997, the Project for the New American Century is a non-profit, educational organization whose goal is to promote American global leadership. The Project is an initiative of the New Citizenship Project (501c3)
The Project for the New American Century is dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; and that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle.
- Project for the New American Century.
As America becomes an increasingly multicultural society, it may become more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat.
According to PNAC’s document entitled Rebuilding America’s Defenses, the primary objective of United States foreign policy is to accomplish the following four missions:
Defend the American homeland; America must defend its homeland. During the Cold War, nuclear deterrence was the key element in homeland defense; it remains essential. But the new century has brought with it new challenges. While reconfiguring its nuclear force, the United States also must counteract the effects of the proliferation of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction that may soon allow lesser states to deter U.S. military action by threatening U.S. allies and the American homeland itself. Of all the new and current missions for U.S. armed forces, this must have priority.
Fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars; The United States must retain sufficient forces able to rapidly deploy and win multiple simultaneous large-scale wars and also to be able to respond to unanticipated contingencies in regions where it does not maintain forward-based forces. This resembles the two-war standard that has been the basis of U.S. force planning over the past decade. Yet this standard needs to be updated to account for new realities and potential new conflicts.
Perform the constabulary duties associated with shaping the security environment in critical regions; The Pentagon must retain forces to preserve the current peace in ways that fall short of conduction major theater campaigns. A decade&rsquo~~ experience and the policies of two administrations have shown that such forces must be expanded to meet the needs of the new, long-term NATO mission in the Balkans, the continuing no-fly-zone and other missions in Southwest Asia, and other presence missions in vital regions of East Asia. These duties are today&rsquo~~ most frequent missions, requiring forces configured for combat but capable of long-term, independent constabulary operations.
Transform the US forces in exploit the revolution in military affairs; The Pentagon must begin now to exploit the so-called revolution in military affairs, sparked by the introduction of advanced technologies into military systems; this must be regarded as a separate and critical mission worthy of a share of force structure and defense budgets.
The report continues:
To carry out these core missions, we need to provide sufficient force and budgetary allocations. In particular, the United States must:
Maintain nuclear strategic superiority, basing the US nuclear deterrent upon a global, nuclear net assessment that weighs the full range of current and emerging threats, not merely the US-Russia balance.
Restore the personnel strength of today’s force to roughly the levels anticipated in the Base Force outlined by the Bush Administration, an increase in active-duty strength from 1.4 million to 1.6 million.
Reposition US forces to respond to 21st century strategic realities by shifting permanently-based forces to Southeast Europe and Southeast Asia, and by changing naval deployment patterns to reflect growing U.S. strategic concerns in East Asia.
Modernize current US forces selectively, proceeding with the F-22 program while increasing purchases of lift, electronic support and other aircraft; expanding submarine and surface combatant fleets; purchasing Comanche helicopters and medium-weight ground vehicles for the Army, and the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft for the Marine Corps.
Cancel roadblock programs such as the Joint Strike Fighter, CVX aircraft carrier, and Crusader howitzer system that would absorb exorbitant amounts of Pentagon funding while providing limited improvements to current capabilities. Savings from these cancelled programs should be used to spur the process of military transformation.
Develop and deploy global missile defenses to defend the American homeland and American allies, and to provide a secure basis for U.S. power projection around the world.
Control the new international commons of space and cyberspace, and pave the way for the creation of a new military service - U.S. Space Forces - with the mission of space control.
Exploit the revolution in military affairs; to insure the long-term superiority of U.S. conventional forces. Establish a two-stage transformation process which maximizes the value of current weapons systems through the application of advanced technologies, and produces more profound improvements in military capabilities, encourages competition between single services and joint-service experimentation efforts.
Increase defense spending gradually to a minimum level of 3.5 to 3.8 percent of gross domestic product, adding $15 billion to $20 billion to total defense spending annually.
The report concludes:
Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor.
Their neccessary new Pearl Harbor event occurred within a year on September 11, 2001.