Asset Management

As we have seen in previous chapters, the resources that are available to each side in a conflict frequently play a major role in the outcomes of individual clashes and of the overall war. Despite the critical importance of this variable, though, it is still not as important as a determining factor in the outcome of a conflict as is the ability of each side to manage the assets that are available to them. Having huge volumes of resources available does little to contribute to one’s success if one uses them ineffectively. If the volume of resources available was the only variable that mattered, then by all accounts the United States should have accomplished their goals in Afghanistan and returned home within days. Since 2002 (the first full year of operations after the attacks on September 11, 2001), US defense spending quickly rose and stayed consistently between 39 and 42 percent of the entire world’s military expenditures—far more than the combined spending of the next 10–13 nations with highest global defense spending, but still could not predict the attacks on September 11, 2001. Granted, given the immense size of the US economy, defense spending remains only between 5 and 6 percent of GDP during that period, which is well within an average range compared to other nations, but that is not the point.