On Transformation

Abstract

Over the past few years, the Department of Defense has devoted countless manhours to develop new strategies, equipment, and procedures designed to transform the way America fights wars. In spite of these efforts, there seems to be a tremendous level of frustration and confusion throughout the armed services with respect to the concept of transformation. The Secretary of Defense shared his concerns in a recent memo to his senior staff: The questions I posed to combatant commanders this week were: Are you winning or losing the Global War on Terror? Is the DoD changing fast enough to deal with the new 21st century security environment? Can a big institution change fast enough? Is the United States Government changing fast enough? In the writer's view, part of the problem stems from the notion that the armed forces, as an institution, tends to focus on the ways and means of transformation, without a clear vision of the ends. The goal of this paper is to define transformation from an ends perspective, and provide a basis for prioritizing transformational ways and means for executing war.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2004
Accession Number
ADA441657

Entities

People

  • Michael P. Winslow

Organizations

  • National War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Power
  • Combat Operations
  • Command And Control
  • Department Of Defense
  • Governments
  • Iraqi-War
  • Lessons Learned
  • National Security
  • Security
  • Situational Awareness
  • United States
  • United States Government
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare
  • Weapons
  • Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Economics
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.