As with every major turn of the clock, the human race stares at the future with an overwhelming, yet contradictory sense, of hope and fear. As the world spins endlessly towards the new age, the great promises of technological advancement and human achievement are often overshadowed by a growing awareness of global problems and human misery. Within this context, our nation's military forces continue to prepare for the conflicts and operations of the new millennium. Yet all past assumptions about the application of military force are changing. No longer do we face predictable foes on traditional battlefields.
Resources are increasingly scarce even as our pace of peacetime operations reaches historic highs.
Non-lethal operations are coming to the fore, with all the geopolitical effects of lethal military force. Advanced technology can represent both a silver bullet and an Achilles heel. Information technology is changing everything. The United States Air Force is facing the future head-on. In recent years, it completed a series of studies designed to heighten awareness of what the next century may be like and its implications for the Service.