Short of War: Major U.S.A.F. Contingency Operations

Spanning the decades form the beginning of the Cold War to today’s strategy of global engagement, the twenty-three operational summaries in this book illustrate each of the objective for military operations other than wart. The USAF conducted each of these contingencies in a combat zone or area of serious civil disturbance. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, a series of geographically localized crises caused by political, religious or ethnic unrest; outright military aggression; and natural disasters has replaced the relative stability that characterized international relations for more than 50 years of the Cold War. For the United States Air Force, this has meant short notice deployments, air lifts, and other operational missions conducted in reaction to local crises. Such missions have come to dominate Air Force Operations.