Military Roles and Missions: Past Revisions and Future Prospects

Abstract

"Roles and missions" describe what the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps do. It is more accurate to speak of the functions assigned to them, but "roles and emissions: took hold during debates that led to the National Security Act of 1947 and the term has been used ever since to encapsulate arguments about duplication of effort and which Service has the "right" to acquire and operate various platforms and weapons. This paper posts that arguments about military roles and missions are a manifestation of the conflict between the President in his role as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and the Congress empowered by the Constitution to raise and support Armies, provide and maintain a Navy, and make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA519426

Entities

People

  • James H. Kurtz
  • John H. Crerar

Organizations

  • Institute for Defense Analyses

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Power
  • Amphibious Operations
  • Combat Areas
  • Combatant Commanders
  • Congress
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Law
  • Military Force Levels
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Naval Operations
  • Navy
  • Personnel Management
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Systems Analysis and Design