The Changing World of the American Military
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Westview Special Studies in Military Affairs
The Changing World of the American Military
edited by Franklin D. Margiotta
As the U.S. military moves into an uncertain future dominated by rapid change, traditional modes of thought will no longer suffice. Contributors to this volume focus on some of the major factors that will shape the American military in the 1980s: a complex, interdependent international arena, a changing domestic political context, broad societal forces and trends, the imperatives of advanced technology, conflicting bureaucratic and management orientations, and the emergence of new elites.
The articles collected here present the diverse views of civilian scholars, of all services and ranks of the military, and of Department of Defense and congressional civilians; they feature the results of surveys conducted at the three service academies and among other civilian and military populations that number in the tens of thousands. The focus moves from a historical and current assessment of military professionalism to potential influences in the changing international and domestic environments. A major section is devoted to important military manpower issues. Analyses of organizational dynamics and change address the implications of advanced technology, bureaucratization, and centralization of control. The book concludes with contrasting views of the future demands on military professionalism and with a final summary that suggests future research avenues.
Colonel Franklin D. Margiotta is a career air force pilot with an extensive B-52 operational background. Educated in political science at Georgetown University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he is research professor of political science at Air University and is director (dean) of curriculum, Air Command and Staff College. His publications include chapters in Civilian Control of the Military, American Defense Policy (4th ed.), and several journal articles.
The Changing World of the American Military
edited by Franklin D. Margiotta
Foreword by Morris Janowitz
First published 1978 by Westview Press, Inc.
Published 2019 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
The Changing world of the American military.
(Westview special studies in military affairs)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. United StatesArmed Forces. 2. SoldiersUnited States. 3. Military educationUnited States. I. Margiotta, Franklin D. II. Series.
UA23.C513 355.00973 78-6765
ISBN 13: 978-0-367-29073-3 (hbk)
This volume is dedicated to all the families who waited patiently while the authors developed their research, but especially to my wife Goldsby. Throughout the planning of the conference and the editing and publication of this book, she has been a source of ideas, a helpmate, and patient beyond all reasonable expectations.
F.D.M.
Scholarship on military institutions and civil-military relations in the United States has passed through the normal "natural history" of any field in the social sciences. In the first phase, initial interest and efforts produced a series of comprehensive formulations and theories supported by limited data and prepared essentially by civilian scholars. For the study of the military profession, this was the case in the decade following World War II, when a number of pioneer monographs appeared. The second phase saw an increased, but still circumscribed, development of empirical studies testing and elaborating the pioneer formulations. In this phase, government and military-based researchers began to participate. Almost two decades later, the emergence of a third stage has brought determined efforts to chart basic changes through time and to reconceptualize earlier formulations about the American military.
The symposium organized by Franklin Margiotta and this resulting volume on the Changing World of the American Military represent the arrival of this new phase. The accumulation of basic and trend data by both civilian and government specialists is indeed impressive. I am pleased that the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society is a cosponsor of this research enterprise. Each contribution represents the work of individuals rather than of particular universities, research groups, or agencies. Franklin Margiotta has performed the role of conference chairman and editor with commendable skill and persistent concern for objectivity in the responsible and meaningful sense of the term.
The materials presented in this volume provide the bases for the emerging phasenamely, the new efforts at synthesis and reformulation, including partial recasting or reaffirmation of earlier concepts and theories. There is a natural tendency for the original writers to hold to their first ideas. Of course, conceptual continuity is necessary for comparing changes over time. But I have no doubt that the period of conceptual reassessment has begun and will be pressed vigorously by the new generation of Fellows in the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society.
Morris Janowitz
Chicago, Illinois
This book represents more than the excellent efforts of the many authors who contributed the results of their research and experience. Professor Morris Janowitz, University of Chicago, must be given unique credit, since this volume is the result of a meeting of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society (IUS). As chairman, Professor Janowitz had the foresight to obtain the support of the IUS Executive Committee for the first IUS meeting ever held on a military installation. I also thank Morris Janowitz for becoming a friend and a mentor; for the past four years, he has inspired me to explore many dimensions of my changing military profession.
Of equal importance were the commanders of Air University: General F. M. Rogers, USAF, and Lieutenant General Raymond B. Furlong, USAF. Their vision and support were crucial to the success of the conference. Generals Rogers and Furlong created the climate of open academic inquiry that brought the diverse views contained in this book to the Air Command and Staff College. A debt of gratitude is due my immediate commanders who insured the efficient conduct of the conference: Brigadier General Robert F. C. Winger and Major General William L. Nicholson, III. The conference would not have been possible without the organizing skills and devoted efforts of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Thomas, ably assisted by Lieutenant Colonel Ed White and Major Frank Tantillo. Their attention to details made the conference a pleasant experience for each of our guests.
