The US reviews the entire deployment of US troops around the world… Will the’built-in’ USFK change?

The Pentagon (U.S. Department of Defense) has announced that it will review US military deployments around the world this year. As a result, former President Donald Trump’s plan to reduce US troops stationed in Germany and other allies has been turned into a’stop motion’ state. However, according to the results of the review, there is a prospect that the US military will be relocated.

US Department of Defense spokesman John Kirby said at a press briefing on the 5th (local time), “We will conduct a review of the deployment of US forces around the world, including the scope of the US military presence, resources and strategies.” “The review results should help the Minister of Defense to advise the President on ways to effectively allocate military troops to pursue national interests.”Explained.

Earlier, President Joe Biden visited the State Department on the 4th and said, “To ensure that the size of US troops deployed by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin around the world is appropriate and supports the US global strategy. Global Defense Posture Review (GPR)I will do it.”

President Biden added that during the review period, plans to reduce US troops in Germany would be suspended. Former President Trump announced in July last year that of the 36,000 US troops in Germany, a third, or 12,000, would be relocated to other parts of the United States and Europe. He threatened South Korea and Japan to adjust the number of US troops in connection with the defense cost share.

However, it is observed that the fire of’reduction of US troops’ has gone out, but the embers remain. Indo-Pacific Policy Coordinator Kurt Campbell, who oversees Asian policy at the White House, said in’Forine UpperS’, “The US commitment to the forward placement of the US military may undermine the principles of the international community, such as freedom of navigation, equal sovereignty and transparency. “There is.”

Park Won-gon, a professor in the Department of International Area Studies at Handong University, explained that “GPR is a concept that came from rewriting the US military strategy from the time of the Bush administration,” and “The main targets are Germany and Korea.” he is “Seeing that President Biden came up with the term GPR, it meant that the US Department of Defense would focus on US forces in Korea and US forces in Korea.I said.

Indeed, according to a press release from the US Department of Defense, Troops circulating in Korea were also subject to review.. Since 2015, the United States has operated a single brigade, which is a ground force combat force of the USFK, in the form of a circular arrangement brought from the US mainland instead of being built-in in Korea.

The United States has identified Russia and China as potential enemies. In order to deal with Russia in Europe, it is an analysis that it is more advantageous to move US troops to Eastern European countries such as Poland rather than Germany. In the case of China, the US military needs to deploy in Southeast Asia, which is having a territorial dispute with China over the South China Sea.

The U.S. Army conducts’Defender Pacific’ training to check combat posture in the Indo-Pacific region. This year’s training will involve US troops at division level. It is expected that the Pentagon will refer to the results of this exercise for review.

It is highly likely that the results of the review will affect the USFK. Even if a conclusion is drawn toward reduction, it is unlikely that President Biden will implement it immediately because he has a foreign policy that emphasizes cooperation with allies. However, by urgently deploying some troops of the USFK to other regions of the Indo-Pacific It is likely to increase strategic flexibility.

Reporter Lee Cheol-jae [email protected]