Assessing the State and Federal Missions of the National Guard
Abstract
Although the National Guard has long had both state and federal mission responsibilities, during the Cold War its force structure was based solely on federal mission requirements both explicit and derived. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the new regionally oriented national military strategy and supporting Base Force Plan provided for reducing both active and reserve component forces, including the National Guard. These strategy and downsizing plans, however, were not universally accepted and generated considerable debate. As part of the initial debates, some questioned the wisdom of reducing the National Guard, primarily because of its state mission contribution. A series of developments focused attention on the important domestic mission responsibilities of the National Guard. These developments included a series of domestic disasters and emergencies, the passage of new legislation authorizing the Guard to participate in domestic initiatives designed to alleviate pressing national problems, the emergence of State Governors' concerns about the dire consequences associated with reducing the National Guard, and the Secretary of Defense's Bottom-Up Review, which acknowledged the need to support domestic missions. They contributed to existing concerns that a smaller National Guard would be unable to meet both state and federal mission requirements and led Congress in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1994 to require the Secretary of Defense to provide for a study of the state and federal missions of the Guard. (KAR) p. 10
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA298982
Entities
People
- John F. Schank
- Roger A. Brown
- William Fedorochko Jr.
Organizations
- RAND Corporation