"The US Bomber Strike Force: Deterrence and the Brinksmanship Policy"

 
Since the end of the cold war and the US emergence as a key pillar in world security and peace, the US has continued to play a transformative role in international security. As a major part of that role, the US’s strategic bomber force has long been a large part of deterrence theory, whether nuclear or conventional, helping preserve US national interests around the globe. However, over the last few decades, the nation's fiscal constraints have decreased our force structure and shifted to a more collaborative approach towards international security.

This approach has enabled the US to work towards the creation of a stable and prosperous nation while developing secure and stable allies which could help guarantee the prosperity of other nations and the global economy all the while overshadowing many of our security threats in which we faced. It has at many times left our bomber and nuclear forces out of this process largely because of the domestic nature of these threats. However, it is essential that we continue to fight domestic threats today and in the future while relying on the international allies to assist in regional security conflict across the globe (Banks, 2012).

The nature of the security threat to our country as well as our allies, however, has changed in recent times and the United States today faces an even more chaotic yet well-organized threat as compared to years ago. This can be seen by the catastrophic attacks like 9/11 to the French hostage terror attacks where even our swift, efficient, and effective intelligence community was not even able to detect the event in time. Lone-wolf threats are now even targeting many of our military and diplomatic members with the use and exploitation of social media.

These and many other examples over the last decade have placed the nation directly engaged in conflicts around the globe that have predominately concentrated on the operation and growth of terrorist organizations posing a direct inherent danger to our nation’s security. If these threats continue to grow with little or no containment, effective engagement, or deterrent measures the stability of the global community and national security will surely suffer.