The Battle Over Change: The Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986

Abstract

Arguably, the single greatest piece of defense legislation since the National Security Act of 1947 is the Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act (GNA) of 1986. This piece of legislation reformed four major aspects of the Department of Defense (DoD), the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), the budget process, and Service organization. This paper will examine the interagency process that propelled this legislation to law. Because of the scope of this legislation, this paper will focus on the specific efforts to increase the powers of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS). It will show that Congress increased the powers of the CJCS for two reasons; first, in order to strengthen the advice provided by the military in the chain of command and second, to add greater scrutiny to the defense department budget. This action was the result of many factors coming together at the right time, spurred on by expert staff work, the influence of retired officers who highlighted service infighting and the involvement of powerful members of Congress.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA442953

Entities

People

  • Jeffrey G. Lofgren

Organizations

  • National War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Command And Control
  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • Homeland Security
  • International Security
  • Law
  • Military Advisors
  • Military Organizations
  • National Security
  • Navy
  • Organizational Structure
  • Procurement
  • Security
  • United States
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Economics
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Public Financial Management and Budgeting