JOINT DOCTRINE STORY

Joint, and in many instances, multinational warfare is an American military tradition. Numerous examples which characterize the jointness of warfighting, American style, fill the pages of our history from the Revolutionary War to the present. The defeat of Cornwallis's army at Yorktown was a combined American and French land campaign supported by the timely interdiction of British reinforcement efforts from the sea by French naval forces. In 1944, American, British and Canadian naval, air and land forces conducted the largest shore-to-shore amphibious operation in the annals of warfare, Operation Overlord. This invasion of Normandy was the death knell for the Third Reich. As part of what has proven to be a successful free world strategy to contain post-war communism, the Army, Navy and Marine Corps's execution of General MacArthur's masterful plan to turn the flank of the North Korean Army at Inchon is yet another example of joint warfare. More recently, our Armed Forces conducted Eldorado Canyon in Libya, Just Cause in Panama, and Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf. All were joint operations and all were highly successful.   In all of these examples, the aim was to coordinate the combat capabilities of the Services and allies or coalition partners to achieve the greatest possible military advantage. This was accomplished through the creation and execution of plans which maximized the unique capabilities of each of the Services. The result was a synergistic force of significantly greater joint combat power than if each Service had been employed individually against the same enemy. Clearly, the idea of joint operations is a natural complement to the pragmatic, team oriented culture of the United States.Though the US Military has a rich and successful history of joint warfighting, emphasis on the formal development of joint doctrine is relatively new. Prior to 1986, no single individual or agency had overall responsibility for joint doctrine.   As a result, there was no established process for the identification of critical joint doctrine voids and there were no procedures for participation by the combatant commands in the development of joint doctrine. There was also no single agency responsible for ensuring consistency between existing joint doctrine, Service doctrine, multi-Service doctrine and combined doctrine. The Goldwater, Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 made the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff singularly responsible for "developing doctrine for the joint employment of the armed forces." In turn, this 1986 law generated directives which amplified these new joint doctrine responsibilities given to the Chairman. Figure 1 is a summary of the legislative and regulatory instruments which currently guide the joint doctrine development process. The magnitude and importance of these changes to regulatory requirements and their impact on warfighting doctrine cannot be overemphasized. Today, Service doctrine must be consistent with that joint doctrine established by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Figure 1. Legislative and Regulatory Requirements Impacting Joint Doctrine

Additionally, joint doctrine is to provide the basis for doctrinal agreements with our allies. Further, the combatant commands that actually employ forces on the battlefield now participate directly in the development of the operational doctrine that will guide the employment of those forces in combat. None of these requirements existed previously. A comparison of the previous methodology for developing joint doctrine and the current system is provided in Figure 2.   In order to carry out his new responsibilities under the 1986 DOD Reorganization Act, and to improve both interoperability and efficiency, the Chairman reorganized the Joint Staff in early 1987. Pulling resources from throughout the Joint Staff, two new Directorates were formed and staff responsibilities were realigned. Responsibilities for joint plans, training, exercises, evaluation, education, interoperability and joint doctrine were brought together under a single Directorate, the Operational Plans and Interoperability Directorate, J-7. To specifically focus on managing the joint doctrine development process, a separate Joint Doctrine Division has been established within the J-7. The Joint Doctrine Division is the caretaker of the joint doctrine process and the primary spokesman on doctrinal issues for the combatant commands within the Pentagon.