Combined Joint Force Case Study

Djibouti supports the only U.S Military base on the continent of Africa- it also supports French and Japanese military forces. The U. S Military installation, Camp Lemonnier, houses over 4000 Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force personnel, which includes a robust contingency of Special Operations personnel. Djibouti’s support for a U.S Military presence enables the sustained training of East African militaries, a key objective in the State Departments vision to enhance the effectiveness, capability, credibility and status of East African militaries towards civilian populations they serve. Additionally, having a U.S military presence supports and develops a wide range of military options available to the Commander in Chief during emergent/contingent operations. Finally, the Djiboutian government support of multi-national military forces

Major military units and headquarters include NATO’s Allied Command Transformation, U.S. Joint Forces. Command, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, the U.S. Air Force’s Air Combat Command, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Command, and the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.

The bombings on the United States embassies in East Africa were several attacks that happened on August 7, 1998 in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. These attacks occurred simultaneously and involved truck bomb explosions at the American embassies in these countries resulting in the death of hundreds of people and destruction of property. Moreover, these attacks happened on the same date that marked the eighth anniversary of the arrival of the United States forces in Saudi Arabia. The genesis of the attacks were largely associated to the members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad that culminated in the placement of Osama bin Laden among the top ten most wanted fugitives by the United States. These attacks on the American embassies were not only shocking to the world but it also resulted in the understanding of the serious security threat posed by terrorists and terror organizations.

The United States from the Cold War and into the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) continues to face challenges in translating military might into political desires due to its obsession with raising an army, electing politicians and assembling a diplomatic corp that continue to gravitate towards State-to-State engagements that if not rectified could lead to substantial delays in fighting terrorism and non-terrorist adversaries or worse total failure of the United States Military’s ability to properly carry out it’s politicians objectives due to being blindsided.

While analyzing the North Africa conflict, a combination of service capabilities would be required to achieve the desired end state of deterring and if necessary, the defeat of Algerian guerilla aggression to prevent regional and global destabilization. Taking into account the current military landscape that exists today, a joint task force (JTF) would be the ideal military response of the United States and collation partner’s while utilizing the regional military assets. Intelligence suggests guerilla forces are capable of a full scale offensive into Morocco in less than 36 hour notice, bringing the factors of time, force and space into consideration.

In the infancy of Operation Enduring Freedom the command structure was dislocated, lacked complete oversight, and had other responsibilities that stacked the deck against them to be able to properly prepare for Operation Anaconda. General Franks Commanded Operations in Afghanistan as the CENTCOM Commander from MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. CENTCOM directed Operations through the Coalition Forces Air Component Command (CFACC) via its Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) in the Persian Gulf, and the Coalition Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC) which was located at Camp Doha Kuwait (Fleri, Howard, Hukill, & Thomas, 2003). Furthermore, in addition to the conventional and special operations forces (SOF) units and assets operating under CENTCON control, other government agencies and SOF operating directly under the Secretary of Defense (Black SOF) operated concurrently in the AOR.

According to the Institute for Economics & Peace’s Global Terrorism Index 2014 report, the top ten countries most affected by terrorism include: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Syria, India, Somalia, Yemen, the Philippines, and Thailand. Amongst the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Russia ranked just outside the top 10 at number 11. China, the United Kingdom, the United States, and France rank at 25, 27, 30, and 56 respectively. However, the success of counterterrorist efforts will not only depend on the ability of one nation, but also a cooperative effort from the international

The evolvement of terror networks and their role as non-state actors in an interconnected world is one of the forefront issues of TOC. The improvements in digital technology that have included 3G and 4G mobile Wi-Fi access has allowed routes of communication between terror and other crime networks to improve through faster communication and providing access in more areas that were previously inaccessible. With an estimated 640 million small arms and light weapons (SALW) in circulation, 100 million of them are estimated to be throughout Africa. After September 11, 2001, the international world committed themselves to counterterrorism efforts. The United Nations charter, along with more than thirty agencies under the UN allow research, action, and purview over terrorism, including DISEC, in Member States such as the United States of America, sixteen agencies and departments oversee terrorist activity

When the September 11, 2001 attacks occurred the United States responded in a manner which was seen as a traditional reaction to such an attack; it used its overwhelming superior military to invade the nation of Afghanistan. As Afghanistan was the operating base of the terrorist group responsible for the attacks, Al Qaeda, the invasion all but destroyed the group's operating capacity. But in response to the United States' apparent victory the terrorists have re-organized themselves into a looser confederation and turned to alternative methods of finance and operation. One could say that the success of the American military's answer to the September 11th attacks have created a new environment in which terrorists currently operate. This includes the use of the internet, unconventional alliances with international criminal organizations, as well the inception of the "lone wolf" terrorist. Faced with these new type of threats, the United States and its allies must find a way to identify and deal with them.

In the fight against global terrorism, the United States has emerged as the leader in the fight against transnational terrorism due to its standing as world’s lone superpower and the fact big target for attacks by terrorist groups. However, with that being said as powerful as the United States is and with as many resources that it has at its disposal it to fight terrorism it still needs help from others. Nation states that are in regions were terrorists wreak or have terrorist activity within their own borders are in a situation in which they would be able to help the United States in a substantial way by providing a great deal of information and partnering up with the United States in the fight against terrorism. However, there are nations

For African sub-Saharan countries, asymmetric warfare has erupted since their independence and they have developed internal, regional and multinational strategies to respond to threats of modern warfare. In other words, the concept of asymmetric warfare means using of unconventional tactics against a superior opponent operational objectives. So, every country has adapted a national strategy of Defense to respond to asymmetric threats. For example the Special Operation Forces or light infantry units are merged for counterinsurgency operations. At regional level, there are two types of organizations, alliances and coalitions that face the same threats. For example, to fight the Boko Haram terrorist group, Cameroon has signed two bilateral alliances;

As a direct consequence of September 11, a number of substantial challenges lie ahead in the area of counter-terrorism..   The most prominent of these is the changing nature of the terrorism phenomenon.  In past years, when terrorism was largely the product of direct state sponsorship, policymakers were able to diminish prospects for the United States becoming a target using a combination of diplomatic and military instruments to deter potential state sponsors.  Today, however, many terrorist organizations and individuals act independently from former and present state sponsors, shifting to other sources of support, including the development of transnational networks.

The 'Joint and Coalition Operational Analysis (JCOA) case study is regarding the U.S-Philippines partnership in counter-terrorism (CT) operations that took place from 2002-2011. The CT operation was titled as 'Operation ENDURING FREEDOM-PHILIPPINES (OEF-P) and was conducted by the partnership of Philippine security forces and US Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P). The CT cooperation took place at three levels, tactical, operational, and strategic. The role of JSOTF was that of 'advise and assist' whereby ground operations were conducted by the Philippine forces. The US cooperation for CT in Philippines was guided by the Joint Publication (JP) 5-0, Joint Operation Planning, and a policy and action framework to act as a binding framework for conducting joint, interagency, and multinational CT operations using full range of military operational capacity. The OEF-P was also conducted by incorporating JP 5-0 principles and guidelines of engagement. The OEF-P took place in Southern Philippines. Following is an assessment how the US forces used termination, military end state, and objectives of operational design (Joint Pub 5-0, page III-18) to develop and refine their operational approach.

The ability of the organization to conduct its operations from Yemen originates from the fact that the country is considered as a failed state, which makes it a safe haven for such operations. While both of the attempts failed, they have demonstrated the ongoing weaknesses in United States homeland security. However, the Administration and Congress have recently endorsed an ongoing commitment of America's resources to counterterrorism and stabilization initiatives. Despite of these initiatives, many analysts state that security problems originating from Yemen may persist because of the country's political climate and development challenges (Sharp, 2012).

Over the years there have been significant changes in how terrorism is carried out. With the changes in how terrorism is carried out there have also been dramatic changes in how countries counter terrorist attacks. The modifications in the way a country counters these terrorist attacks affects international relations of these countries. These issues bring about the question of how have counter terrorism methods affected international relations. To answer this question several things must be addressed which are, methodology, history of terrorism, and a literature review of multiple authors that have discussed this subject.