A way that the United States military can be used to support peace as well as prevent conflict involves nuclear weapons. Stiehm writes “One goal is nonproliferation. The United States has particularly focused on preventing Iran’s acquisition of such weapons. It has had to make peace with India’s and Pakistan’s programs and to accept the fact that North Korea has a limited arsenal. However, there is a second goal. It involves drastically cutting the number of weapons held by nuclear powers, particularly those in the arsenals of the United States and Russia.” (2012). The act of nonproliferation is important to keep peace throughout the world as well as helps prevent conflict because of the lower amount of weapons spread throughout the world. The deterrence of the United States military having these weapons is also another aspect of supporting peace as well because countries are less likely to go into a conflict with a country that has these powerful weapons. An additional way that the United States military supports peace is through peace operations Stiehm writes that “Peace Operations are one kind of intervention. These include peacekeeping, peacemaking, peace building, and peace enforcement. Classical peacekeeping had three principles: (1) being invited by all parties to a conflict, (2) absolute neutrality, and (3) no use of force except in self-defense.” (2012). These operations are more directly involved in supporting peace throughout the world as well as they can lead directly to preventing conflict if the United States military is there to resolve conflict between two other groups.

The actions are consistent with the strategic goals of the United States military’s strategic goals. According to Stiehm one of the strategic goals is “to deter and defeat aggression. The U.S. nuclear arsenal is to be reduced but maintained, and a ballistic missile defense against limited attacks is to be advanced.” (2012). All of the actions involving nuclear weapons revolve around this strategic goal. An additional goal that Stiehm mentions is to “strengthen international and regional security” (2012) this goal directly goes hand in hand with peacekeeping operations to strengthen regional security. These actions are consistent with the strategic goals of the United States military.

References

Stiehm, J. H. (2012). The U.S. military: A basic introduction. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.