A Strategic Plan for Winning the War in Public Health

Abstract

A strategic military plan applied to public health is prudent and should be developed because the budget for public health has been cut, the workforce substantially reduced, life expectancy ranking has declined, and the number of life-threatening pandemics worldwide has increased. The United States is experiencing more public health casualities annually from smoking alone than deaths from the last four major wars. Until Americans have the same passion, zeal, nationalism, and patriotism for public health as other threats to homeland security, the “war” will not be won. Winning the war will depend on focusing on the enemy's center of gravity (CG), prioritizing ends, and applying instruments of power that are efficacious. The enemy's CG is morbidity and our nation's CG is the abundance of means. Prioritizing ends is limiting the number of goals/objectives, and addressing simpler and easier objectives first that show the greatest potential for impact on morbidity and mortality. Three instruments of power are presented for heuristic purposes and include knowledge/facts and beliefs, sine qua non constructs of change, and “best processes.” The theater of war must be the enemy's environment and established ends of victory/success must be established a priori.