Paying to keep the peace

HEADNOTE

Is military intervention abroad necessary to protect U.S. economic interests?

THE UNITED STATES MILITARY IS VERY busy these days battling rogue states and hunting down terrorists. But another U.S. military

mission demands even more resources than the operations that grab headlines. The U.S. military spends most of its time - and allocates most of its force structure - in pursuit of the quiet, unseen mission sometimes called "enhancing stability," sometimes called "shaping," and sometimes called "policing the empire." While the words "stability," "shaping," and "policing" sound wise, what exactly does the United States gain through those efforts? Is America's spending on global stability a good investment?

The U.S. military's primary mission was once much more tangible than the current "stability" operation. During the Cold War, the United States feared that a powerful, hostile Soviet Union would conquer the other areas of the world that had major concentrations of industrial strength: Western Europe and East Asia. Such an accumulation of resources would pose a great threat to the nation, so the United States formed military alliances and deployed troops to defend Europe, Japan, and South Korea.