In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Where Is the Lone Ranger When We Need Him? America's Search for a Postconflict Stability Force
  • Tammy S. Schultz (bio)
Where Is the Lone Ranger When We Need Him? America's Search for a Postconflict Stability Force, by Robert M. Perito (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2004). 400 pages. $19.95.

With the war just ended, the prospects for winning the peace look daunting. The United States military needs to stabilize an area approximately the size of Pennsylvania that holds sixteen million inhabitants and over twenty million refugees as a result of the war. One-fourth of all housing has been destroyed. Water and sanitation systems are in shambles, and many war criminals remain at large. Of greatest concern to Washington, however, are the increasing acts of sabotage and unprovoked attacks on military personnel. As an example of the mounting violence, four explosions during the night cause extensive damage to the town hall and jail. Later arrests confirm that those responsible for the carnage were sympathizers of the old regime. American policymakers desire a quick exit, but initial reports from the ground do not bode well for U.S. departure anytime soon.

Although this description may closely resemble recent news reports from Iraq, the events depicted actually occurred over fifty years ago in postwar Germany.1 As analysts and authors have accurately identified, post-World War II Germany and Japan obviously differ from today's Iraq in many important respects, such as demographics and degree of economic industrialization.2 The situations are rather more analogous, however, in terms of the type of mission undertaken in each country by the U.S. military. After May 1, 2003, when President George Bush declared an end to major combat operations, the United States faced a massive post-conflict reconstruction (PCR) operation, just as it did half a century ago in Germany and Japan.3 Yet despite this change in mission in Iraq, the U.S. tackled the PCR with the same forces it used to win the war.

In his recent book, Where is the Lone Ranger When We Need Him? America's Search for a Postconflict Stability Force, former State Department diplomat Robert Perito tackles the critical issue of the lack of U.S. constabulary forces for post-conflict reconstruction work. He defines constabulary forces as "armed forces of the state that have both military capabilities and police powers,"4 and the United States formed exactly such constabulary units to win the peace following World War II in the description above. Today, more U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq to win the peace than the war, and the question of matching force to mission becomes increasingly urgent. The United States needs to deploy forces with skill sets as complex as the environments these soldiers will face. Deploying the right force to PCR environments proves vital not only for [End Page 195] those countries the United States intends to help, but also for U.S. national security. Perito's work, one of the first book-length attempts to address the issue of the lack of U.S. peace operations capacity, deserves credit for highlighting this vital disconnect between mission and force.

Perito also proposes a solution, a "U.S. Special Force kit," that includes a U.S. constabulary, lawyers, judges, and cops, but it is a solution that proves simultaneously too ambitious and not radical enough. The proposal is too ambitious because not all pieces of the kit exist. Perito inconsistently argues that the United States "does not have constabulary forces" and yet states that there exists "a modern-day U.S. organization that has both military capabilities and police powers and that does fit this study's definition of a constabulary. That organization is the U.S. Army Military Police."5 Although it is true that the updated field manual for the U.S. Military Police (MP) allows MPs to participate in constabulary-type activities, the bulk of MP duties comprises internal policing within the military.6 As Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, the U.S. Central Command spokesman in Iraq, said, "At no time do we see [the U.S. military] becoming a police force...

pdf

Share