Assessing the Effects of Organizational Changes within the Office of the Secretary of Defense on the Nuclear Mission

Abstract

A series of organizational changes within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) since the Cold Wars end arguably fostered a devolution of focus on the nuclear enterprise. This culminated with inexcusable incidents that questioned the credibility of the United States nuclear enterprise. Through a content analysis of reports, directives, and historical documents with interviews of Department of Defense (DoD) personnel, this research found that the organizational changes drove a dissolution of critical OSD offices that had played a critical role in nuclear policy and decision, which negatively affected the nuclear enterprise. Furthermore, efforts to reduce OSD staff personnel and assess OSD organizational performance, while positive in nature, may also have a negative effect on the nuclear enterprise if not executed with prudence.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2016
Accession Number
AD1017993

Entities

People

  • Marc Anthony C Ortiz

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Cyber
  • Human Systems
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Data Analysis
  • Department Of Defense
  • Employment
  • Governments
  • Law
  • Management Personnel
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personnel Management
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States
  • United States Government
  • United States Strategic Command
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Strategic Security Studies