The Marine Corps Operating Concepts - Third Edition, has been released and I wanted to make it available to readers. I'll be writing much more about this document after I get some time to thoroughly read it. For now, I wanted to highlight this bit from the first chapter:
While Marine Corps forces may perform a variety of missions across the range of military operations, two stand at the forefront of what we do.First, as part of the naval team we assure littoral access by bridging the difficult seam between operations at sea and on land. This is accomplished through a combination of activities ranging from military engagement, crisis response, and power projection (both soft and hard). This capability contributes to overcoming diplomatic, geographic and military challenges to access and assists the Nation in it strategic objectives of preventing conflict, protecting national interests, assuring access to engage partners and to defeat aggression when necessary.
Second, we fight what have historically been called "small wars," operations that require a high degree of adaptability along with versatile, comprehensive skills. We have a long track record of success in solving; spanning recently from Al Anbar province, to the Barbary Wars and suppression of the slave trade in the early 19th century. These are complex problems in which purely military solutions will not suffice—because the fundamental causes of the conflict are often a complicated combination of security, economic, political and social issues.
-- Greg Grant
