

To make this argument, existing Department of Defense (DOD) authorities for foreign humanitarian operations are first summarized, in addition to component- and theater-level guidance.

The scope is limited to missions within U.S.-Indo Pacific Command, given the preeminent focus of this theater in both national- and Service-level planning directives. This article challenges current Marine Corps guidance that foreign humanitarian assistance missions are not part of Marines' identity and the implicit messaging that they detract from warfighting readiness.

4 The shift away from supporting foreign humanitarian assistance missions is a dramatic, if underappreciated, facet of the Corps' Force Design 2030 efforts. Indo-Pacific Command is not only framed in opposition to the requirement to respond to natural disasters, but these humanitarian missions are dissociated from the identity of the Marine Corps. The goal of achieving "warfighting overmatch" within the U.S. As the force-in-readiness, we are not an across-the-ROMO force but rather, a force that ensures the prevention of major conflict and deters the escalation of conflict within the ROMO. Rather, they are the day-to-day consequence of being the force-in-readiness. While we stand by to perform "such other duties as the President may direct," foreign humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and noncombatant evacuations do not define us-they are not our identity.

Under the subheading of "warfighting," the Commandant's Planning Guidance states that 2 This article addresses that gap by examining how the guidance frames the Marine Corps' ability to respond to natural disasters as a trade-off that comes at the expense of warfighting readiness. 1 Much of the scrutiny and support of the Commandant's Planning Guidance has focused on the wisdom of high-profile manpower and equipment changes and the dominant focus on China, but largely absent from the discussion is an analysis of the Marine Corps' envisioned role in foreign humanitarian assistance missions within U.S. The 38th Commandant of the Marine Corps' 2019 guidance shifted the strategic vision and future of the Marine Corps from a globally oriented, full range of military operations force, to an Indo-Pacific focused, naval expeditionary force optimized for conventional conflict.
