Reserve Components and the National Will: Clauswitz, Total Force Policy and the Strategic Realities of the 21st Century

Abstract

In early 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld questioned the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard B. Myers, on military capabilities resident in the Reserve Components (RC). Secretary Rumsfeld's query highlighted a deepening Department of Defense concern regarding the ever expanding role of RC forces in the United States' military strategy for the 21st Century. This paper will review the historical development of America's RC and role of citizen-soldiers as a means of galvanizing the national will in support of military operations. It will also examine the linkage between Prussian military theorist, Carl von Clauswitz's concepts and the formulation of the Abrams Doctrine and Total Force Policy as they apply to the relationship between the national will and military success. Lastly, this narrative will analyze the relevancy that use of the RC equates to national will paradigm in the strategic environment of the 21st Century.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 07, 2003
Accession Number
ADA415733

Entities

People

  • George E. Reynolds Iii

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Army Personnel
  • Civil War
  • Combat Operations
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Genocide
  • Globalization
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Organizations
  • Military Operations
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Second World War
  • Terrorists
  • United States
  • War
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies
  • Military Mobilization and Reserve Forces Studies.