Twenty years ago, when the bloom was off the rose of post-Cold War interventionism, the phrase "exit strategy" came into vogue. It was a shorthand for questions like, What will the situation on the ground look like when we've accomplished our mission? How will we know when we've won, or at least can transition from kinetic military operations to a post-conflict phase?

James Joyner is a security studies professor at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College and a nonresident senior fellow with the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council. These views are his own.

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