US Army Modernization: Looking at the Past to Build the Future
Abstract
With the publication of the 2019 Army Modernization Strategy: Investing in the Future, the US Army initiated another of its periodic modernization campaigns to meet the military requirements of a new era of competition. Considering the challenges associated with change in bureaucracies, it is critical to identify actions and conditions that can contribute to both success and effectiveness. This paper considers what internal conditions the army can influence and shape, and what external conditions it can monitor, to modernize successfully. It further attempts to identify specific modernization conditions, using case studies from the interwar period between World War I and II, on which army leaders should focus. The study draws its conditions, including commitment, leadership, consensus, doctrine, and resourcing, from theorists in the fields of modernization and change management. The results of this work indicate that each of these conditions influences modernization, but further finds that the selected conditions are not exclusively definitive of success. While this study merely lays a groundwork for a better understanding of success in modernization, it opens areas of inquiry for further research, such as integrating modernization across the services, which can improve the likelihood of success, not only for the US Army, but also for the entirety of the Department of Defense.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 21, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1160100
Entities
People
- Ted L. Jr Stokes
Organizations
- School of Advanced Military Studies