Page 63

• Incorporating post-Cold War deterrence explicitly into Naval War College curricula, to gain the benefit of the students' thinking and theses on the subject and to heighten students' awareness of the special problems associated with deterrence to help them in their future assignments. This step must include conveying a sense of judgment regarding the circumstances that affect the national will to undertake deterrent actions that may entail significant human, economic, and political costs. It also includes cultivation of the political skills that will be needed by naval forces' commanders in the complex deterrence situations they may face. Assignments such as National War College studies, where such matters are considered on a joint Service basis, should be encouraged.

The kinds of preparation inherent in the uses and enhancement of decision aids that are described above should strongly reinforce the ability of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps to contribute to U.S. deterrence policy and strategy. Just as the evolution of Cold War deterrence strategy took place as events unfolded and analysts and policy makers both anticipated and reviewed them over a long period of years, so also will the appropriate application of available decision aids contribute to the development of deterrence policy and strategy in the current post-Cold War period.