U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services Panel on Roles and Missions: Initial Perspectives
Abstract
The Pentagon's traditional way of thinking of restructuring is termed "Roles and Missions," an innocuous-sounding phrase with breathtaking reach. Normally confined to the Pentagon, the recent need for nation-building has broadened security thinking to agencies outside the Department of Defense. The task of this "Panel on Roles and Missions" is to examine the "roles" of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard, as well as the particular "missions" of the Armed Services, Intelligence Agencies, State Department, the National Security Council, and other agencies, in protecting American security. It is hard to imagine a broader or more daunting task. The Panel has divided the task into three levels: (1) Interagency problems of coordination on nation-building, Africom, and the use of American soft power; (2) Pentagon-wide problems of procurement, management, and strategic vision; and (3) Interservice rivalry over which branch of the military controls drones, airlift, or even the infantry. This Panel's Report does not attempt to give full answers -- and certainly not legislative ones -- to these categories of problems, but to begin examining several ideas for removing or reducing a number of policy impediments. Many of these ideas will be unpopular with the Pentagon, White House, or within Congress, just as the now-famous Goldwater-Nichols reforms faced strong opposition before 1986. Some of the ideas in this Report deserve strong opposition. But the job of the Panel was to break some ground and plant a few seeds. By your reaction, you can help decide which ones deserve to grow, and offer new ones that should have been planted. In this volume, members of the House Armed Services Committee want to challenge their colleagues and fellow citizens to join them in rethinking national security. They have included a range of very short essays to address some of the many problems they see. The essays are designed to prompt a reaction, and a stronger America.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA477872
Entities
People
- Andrew Hunter
- Andrew Hyde
- David Sours
- Duncan Hunter
- Erin Conaton
- Ike Skelton
- Jim Cooper
- Mark G. Lewis
- Russell Rumbaugh
- Tom Hawley