The Utility of Conventional Ballistic Missiles in Asymmetric Warfare

The National Security Strategy sets forth the President's objectives for creating the roadmap for the Department of Defense (DoD) to follow in its military strategy. The Quadrennial Defense Review translates this strategy into an operationalized framework on which to focus. The DoD utilizes the framework to transform toward greater unity of effort, effects-based operations, and flexible options at the President's disposal. Nuclear deterrence remains a necessary strategy, but now there exists a need to provide the same benefits nuclear deterrence offers in relation to a paradigm shift toward terrorist activity, insurgency operations, and asymmetric warfare. The key to applying deterrence in a non-nuclear setting is to reevaluate the application of deterrence. We must consider and execute future operations not from purely a reactive policy but also a proactive one. Emerging threats further convolute the situational awareness as they force the United States to define the point where action must be taken to protect its allies, interests, and homeland.