There may be examples in history where war unfolded to the script of politicians and generals, but few come to mind. Unfortunately, the Pentagon’s newest strategic guidance prepares only for a future of ordered, defined battles. President Obama stated this much when he said that “the tide of war is receding” and that “we are turning a page.” The Pentagon’s guidance suggests that U.S. leaders have been seduced into thinking that technology can replace strategy and that the nasty people and messy politics that drive conflict around the world can be mitigated from afar.

The president’s statements and the Pentagon’s guidance confirm that the United States, driven by a desire to put a decade of messy war in the Middle East and South Asia behind it, is shifting toward a Pacific-centric defense strategy This geostrategic pivot toward Asia, accompanied by an emphasis on high technology Sino-centric warfare, fails to account for the character of conflict in most of the rest of the disordered world.