The Brookings Institution All Rights Reserved. We'll post the most interesting comments. But that is the opposite of the overwhelming power approach that might be useful for defence but not for intervention, see Vietnam as the most extreme case. But their principal approach and training seems to be dominate by the 'tough' way of fighting which could make a superpower pretty inflexible. A related issue is whether or not the UN or American allies could develop more rapidly deployable forces.
American forces become the first peacekeepers because they make up the army of occupation.
Until professional officials and administrators are in place the wide range of peacekeeping responsibilities fall upon American forces. Consider how long it has taken to bring outside police forces to Kosovo, and that the training of local police forces has just begun. If Congress and the next President can be persuaded that allied help with peacekeeping will be immediate and substantial enough to ensure that U.S. involvement would not be indefinite or excessive, then they might cooperate with force expansion efforts.