Reforming US National Security for the 21st Century

Abstract

The National Security Act of 1947 and the Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 deftly reorganized the United States national security apparatus during the 20th century. Learning from the failures of flawed practices and institutions, the 80th and 99th U.S. congresses presided over legislation that forged the nation through the Cold War, enhanced civilian-military relations, and tore down the obstacles of service parochialism. While these reforms allowed for the production and employment of highly effective military forces, recent operational experience indicates more reform of the national security apparatus is in order. Optimization, or maintaining or improving effectiveness while enhancing efficiency will become the object of national security reform in the 21st century. This paper argues that the first step in this process will be to reorganize Department of Defense (DoD) staffs, to periodically review service roles and missions, and to "operationalize" the National Security Council (NSC) architecture to better meet future global security challenges.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 23, 2008
Accession Number
ADA484419

Entities

People

  • Ford C. Phillips

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Civilian Personnel
  • Combatant Commanders
  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • Efficiency
  • Governments
  • Law
  • Military Operations
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Security
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States
  • United States Government
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Military Science and Technology Research and Modernization.
  • Strategic Security Studies