Shaping American Military Capabilities after the Cold War

(Hardback)

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For more than 40 years, U.S. defense policy and the design of military capabilities were driven by the threat to national security posed by the Soviet Union and its allies. As the Soviet Union collapsed, analysts wondered what effect this dramatic change would have upon defense policy and the military capabilities designed to support it. Strangely enough, this development would ultimately have little effect on our defense policy. Over a decade later, American forces are a smaller, but similar version of their Cold War predecessors. The author argues that, despite many suggestions for significant change, the bureaucratic inertia of comfortable military elites has dominated the defense policy debate and preserved the status quo with only minor exceptions. This inertia raises the danger that American military capabilities will be inadequate for future warfare in the information age. In addition, such legacy forces are inefficient and inappropriately designed for the demands of frequent and important antiterrorist and peace operations. Lacquement offers extensive analysis concerning the defense policymaking process from 1989 to 2001, including in particular the 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review. This important study also provides a set of targeted policy recommendations that can help solve the identified problems in preparing for future wars and in better training for peace operations.

Reviews

"A user-friendly overview of how our National Security institutions dealt with the end of the Cold War by changing very little."-Lorelei Kelly Senior Associate, The Henry L. Stimson Center, Washington, DC
"America has lost a decade of opportunity to transform its Cold War military capabilities into something more appropriate for the 21st Century. Now, post 9/11, policymakers on both sides of the civil-military relationship are hurrying to make the necessary changes. The danger is they will do so without serious reflection on the recent past. Unfortunately, few are more hapless nor ineffective than policymakers without an acute understanding of how we got to where we are. Lacquement's analysis of the lost decade is a remarkably necessary place for them to start, as well as for all students of the defense policy-making process, both uniformed and civilian."-Don M. Snider, Ph.D. Professor of Political Science, US Military Academy, West Point
"Nearly every recent Secretary of Defense has felt constrained to put forward new ways of organizing, training, and equipping America's armed forces. In this well-researched and well-argued volume, Richard Lacquement takes a close look at these efforts for military reform and persuasively explains why success has been so elusive and why reformers have accomplished so much less than they had hoped. His book is especially relevant in a period when Washington administratons have assigned to the military ever-more demanding tasks."-Richard H. Ullman David K.E. Bruce Professor of International Affairs Emeritus, Princeton University
[p]rovides a detailed analysis of American military capabilities and force structure since the end of the Cold War....Lacquement takes great pride in his research. Whether due to the insistence of his dissertation commitee or simply because of excellent scholarship, he has provided a book that touches on each of the seminal events and documents that helped shape the American military during the past decade....This is a must-read for anyone concerned about the evolution of America's military and its capability to meet the threats of the 21st century.-Parameters
A carefully written, well-documented examination of the current American military establishment and its status quo orientation, this work calls for a major strategic revision of that orientation....this is a valuable and stimulating book as well as a fine research tool. Highly recommended. Graduate collections and above.-Choice
"provides a detailed analysis of American military capabilities and force structure since the end of the Cold War....Lacquement takes great pride in his research. Whether due to the insistence of his dissertation commitee or simply because of excellent scholarship, he has provided a book that touches on each of the seminal events and documents that helped shape the American military during the past decade....This is a must-read for anyone concerned about the evolution of America's military and its capability to meet the threats of the 21st century."-Parameters
"A carefully written, well-documented examination of the current American military establishment and its status quo orientation, this work calls for a major strategic revision of that orientation....this is a valuable and stimulating book as well as a fine research tool. Highly recommended. Graduate collections and above."-Choice
"[p]rovides a detailed analysis of American military capabilities and force structure since the end of the Cold War....Lacquement takes great pride in his research. Whether due to the insistence of his dissertation commitee or simply because of excellent scholarship, he has provided a book that touches on each of the seminal events and documents that helped shape the American military during the past decade....This is a must-read for anyone concerned about the evolution of America's military and its capability to meet the threats of the 21st century."-Parameters

Author Bio

RICHARD A. LACQUEMENT, JR. is a United States Army Field Artillery Officer and a member of the faculty of the U.S. Naval War College.