FROM FORWARD DEFENSE TO FORWARD PRESENCE - MILITARY FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ROK AND UNITED-STATES COMBINED FORCES IN THE APPROACHING UNIFICATION ERA

The unification of the Korean peninsula is inevitable. The ROK and US security arrangement that emerges at the other end of the unification process, like the armed forces themselves, will not be a scaled down v ersion of the alliance that has successfully fulfilled its deterrent r ole for a generation. The role of security arrangements, and the funct ions of the armed forces that implement them, will be fundamentally di fferent from their predecessors. Military factors, in the form of the changing nature of warfare, and the changing nature of how nations wil l use military forces, will change the character of those armed forces , the character of alliances those forces may join, and the measures u sed to demonstrate alliance commitment. Before a new form for ROK and US security cooperation can take shape, the nations must choose the fu nctions those forces will perform. In the Korean context, defining the new terms of reference and the measures for security cooperation must proceed now at the beginning of the unification process, to demonstra te a continuing commitment to stability in the region and to balance r egional apprehensions about the new world order. The new terms will em brace operations other than war to contribute to regional stability.