Beyond Goldwater-Nichols: Impact to the Combatant Commander

Abstract

The Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense (DoD) Reorganization Act of 1986 (GN-86) has been hailed as the most consequential and successful example of defense reform in the Cold War era. While GN-86 effected profound positive change in DoD, a considerable body of recent professional literature advocates additional organizational and process reform. This quest for further change has been driven both by drastic shifts in the strategic security environment since GN-86 was passed, as well as by the existence of still unmet GN-86 objectives. To address this call for change, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Beyond Goldwater-Nichols (BGN) project has published two detailed reports delineating several specific recommendations for significant defense reform. Implementation of all these recommendations would require major changes at many levels of government; in many cases the burden to change or adapt would fall upon military Combatant Commanders. This paper addresses the following research question: Suppose the CSIS recommendations in its Beyond Goldwater-Nichols Phase I and II Reports are implemented. What is the impact to the Combatant Commander?

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 21, 2006
Accession Number
ADA463955

Entities

People

  • David M. Ruth

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Availability
  • Classification
  • Combat Readiness
  • Combatant Commanders
  • Contracts
  • Department Of Defense
  • Information Operations
  • Instructions
  • Military Operations
  • Monitoring
  • Security
  • Standards
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Strategic Security Studies