The Crisis Within: America's Military and the Struggle Between the Overseas and Guardian Paradigms

Paula G. Thornhill

RAND Corporation

RAND Corporation

关键词: National Security Organizations;    United States Marine Corps;    Military Doctrine;    United States Department of Defense;    United States Navy;    United States Army;    Warfare and Military Operations;    Military Personnel;    Military Command and Control;    United States Air Force;   

DOI  :  10.7249/RR1420
ISBN  :  9780833093004
RP-ID  :  RR-1420-AF

学科分类：自然科学（综合）

美国|英语

来源: RAND Corporation Published Research

【 摘 要 】

Today's U.S. military is full of perplexing questions and issues. Individually, each can be explained, but collectively the explanations seem too complicated. This complexity makes the military difficult to comprehend even to those in uniform. This report is an attempt to understand this complexity and to start a conversation about how to better understand America's 21st-century military. To do that, a return to first principles is necessary, starting with how the nation understands "the common defense" and the role that organized violence plays in providing for it. The nation's understanding of both the common defense and organized violence has changed dramatically in the years since 2001. The diversification in the employment of violence produced a profound paradigm shift that Thomas Kuhn's seminal work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, helps to identify and explain. America's senior civilian and military leaders must understand this shift in order to create the military the nation needs in the coming decades and to ensure that it is an institution the American people continue to trust.