Trip Wire

National Security Strategy (NSS) concept that is analogous to the actions of a land mine. A wire can extend from a land mine and serve as the means to detonate or trigger the explosive in the mine. For instance, in Vietnam, soldiers would employ Claymore land mines along guerrilla trails. If an enemy soldier went down the trail, not paying too much attention, he could trip the wire and cause the mine to go off, killing himself and other members of his unit. In national-security strategy, different things can serve as a trip wire in some form of military action.

During the Cold War, for example, various outposts were considered trip wires for the use of force. In Berlin, Germany, the U.S. stationed an army brigade. Its primary purpose was to serve as a trip wire, setting off war in Germany if the Soviet Union took any sort of action. Likewise, the deployment of the Second Infantry Division to the northern part of South Korea continues to serve as a trip wire. If North Korea crosses the demilitarized zone and engages the Second Division in combat, that action will cause the deployment and employment of additional U.S. and allied military units to the Korean peninsula.

[Page 740]Another trip wire has been the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line, a deployed early-warning system that tracks missiles or aircraft entering U.S. and Canadian airspace. If any missiles cross that DEW trip wire, a response would occur, including launching U.S. missiles.

Even in the post–Cold War world, the concept of a trip wire is still employed. During the conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo, the establishment of safe zones in the country served as a trip wire for military action by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). When Bosnian forces entered those safe zones, NATO launched air strikes against them. It is likely the tripwire concept will continue to be employed at different levels—strategic, operational, and tactical—in the future and in future conflicts.