The Marine Mask of War
Abstract
In an era in which our national security establishment is being asked to consider draconian cuts as part of the Nation s reaction to its strained fiscal health, it behooves us to truly understand the unique character of the institutions that make up our armed services. More specifically, on this date, celebrated around the world as the 236th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps, we should pause and appreciate the particular contributions that our Corps of Marines provides for us and the great value the Nation garners from its investment in its Force-in-Readiness. Over two decades ago, the late Carl Builder, an acclaimed defense intellectual who worked for the RAND Corporation, a Pentagon-funded think tank, penned a provocative book. This book, titled The Masks of War: American Military Styles in Strategy and Analysis, has been a well-regarded classic in the library of many defense and security professionals. In The Masks of War, Builder sought to understand why our Services act the way they do, why they prize certain values and particular platforms, and how they relate to the nation s defense needs. Builder created a useful framework for this study of organizational culture, one that allowed him to explore what he found to be the sometimes puzzling, frequently paradoxical, and unusually distinctive personality or institutional DNA of each of America s armed services. The principal flaw in this book is that it overlooked the Marines. Builder, reflecting his bias as a strategic thinker devoted to defense-wide and nuclear matters, did not think the Marines mattered all that much. He admitted that despite a distinctive, even colorful, institutional personality, they were not an independent actor with a significant voice in strategy or force planning. This will come as a surprise to anyone who has tried to wrestle with the Marines in the Pentagon or on the Hill when it comes to budget matters impacting the Corps.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 10, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA570319
Entities
People
- Frank G. Hoffman