This book examines the politics and individuals that have shaped the military reform process in the U.S.This book traces the history of various attempts to impose military reform on American armed forces, especially from Congress, from the American Revolution and Continental Congress to the present day. Particular focus will be placed on the effort of a small group in Congress and the Pentagon in the 1980s (who coined the term military reform in the modern context). Emphasis will be on the reforms these actors advocated, variously successful and unsuccessful, to fundamentally alter how the Department of Defense designs and buys hardware and how U.S. armed forces fight. The book uses the 1991 Gulf War, and the 2003 Iraq War (and the subsequent insurgency in Iraq) to demonstrate what has been reformed in U.S. armed forces and the Department of Defense, and what has not.The volume explains fundamental strengths and weaknesses in America's military forces, exploring what genuine military reform is, what it is not, and what remains to be done. Ideas are presented to compare genuine reform to cosmetic dabbling, which fundamentally improves nothing and which sometimes arrives as ill-conceived fads that promise only to burden U.S. combat forces to the point of mental and physical immobility.Part of the Contemporary Military, Strategic, and Security Issues series, this is the only current reference book that allows readers to understand the strengths and weaknesses in U.S. military forces. Both authors served in the Pentagon and Congress, and provide unique first-hand analysis regarding military reform.

In this authoritative handbook, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense lays out the infrastructural, administrative, and health care challenges facing the Veterans Administration, policymakers, and our veterans themselves. Serving America's Veterans: A Reference Handbook comes from an impeccable source-former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations, and Logistics Lawrence J. Korb. Korb and his team of experts survey, analyze, and evaluate the infrastructural conditions, administrative and health care service challenges, policies, and politics affecting veterans affairs in the United States. They overview the historical context of contemporary veterans affairs and project the capabilities of the Veterans Administration to cope with the needs of active, reserve, and retired veterans. Most critically, they provide practical prescriptions and policy recommendations to address veterans' many, pressing needs. The full spectrum of veterans issues is examined: changing personnel policies in the armed forces; unprecedented levels of National Guard and Reserve mobilization; societal reintegration and funding adequacy when the professional military is a relatively small fraction of the U.S. electorate; rising costs of medical technology; and the growing proportion of veterans with conditions requiring protracted rehabilitation or lifelong intensive care. Timeline Appendixes Glossary Annotated Bibliography

By reference to the fundamental strengths and weaknesses of America's armed forces, Wheeler and Korb establish a definition of what genuine military reform is and is not, and identify what "really" needs to be done to transform our military. They compare genuine reform with "cosmetic dabbling"--that improves nothing and often burdens US combat forces to the point of mental and physical immobility.
They focus particularly on the reforms advocated by a small group in Congress and the Pentagon in the 1980s, revealing how these reforms have fundamentally altered the ways in which the Department of Defense designs and buys hardware, and how our armed forces fight. The book uses Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom--and the subsequent insurgency in Iraq--to demonstrate what has been reformed in the US armed forces and the Department of Defense, and what has not.