Toward a Consensus on Military Service
Report of the Atlantic Council's Working Group on Military Service
- 1st Edition - January 1, 1982
- Latest edition
- Authors: Andrew J. Goodpaster, Lloyd H. Elliott
- Language: English
Toward a Consensus on Military Service: Report of the Atlantic Council's Working Group on Military Service examines the experience and prospects of the U.S. peacetime military… Read more
Toward a Consensus on Military Service: Report of the Atlantic Council's Working Group on Military Service examines the experience and prospects of the U.S. peacetime military volunteer force. It presents a Policy Paper that offers a broad range of recommendations designed both to strengthen that force and to prepare the way, should circumstances require it, for a resumption of compulsory military service. The book begins by providing a geopolitical backdrop for the issues of U.S. military service examined in subsequent chapters. It analyzes basic U.S. national interests, Soviet power and policy, and East-West relations. This is followed by separate chapters on the antecedents of force-manning in the U.S.; current and evolving concepts of U.S. security requirements; the all-volunteer force; and military manpower policies. Subsequent chapters examine long-term military manpower trends and criteria for a peacetime military force; compulsory service options; and social and ethical issues that have colored the historical American debate over how the nation should raise its armed forces in peacetime.
List of Figures
List of Tables
Foreword
Preface
Members of the Working Group on Military Service
Additional Participants in the Regional American Assembly
1 The Setting
Challenges to United States Security Interests
How Soviet Policy and Power Affect Us
The Role of Manpower: Keeping the Peace in a Nuclear Age
Differences of Attitudes and Policy Among the Allies
National Security and American Society
2 Military Manpower: The American Experience and the Enduring Debate
Colonial Militia to San Juan Hill
The First Modern Formulations: 1900-1919
Peace, Prosperity, and Depression
The Debates of 1940
War Years
Postwar Debates
Cold War
Vietnam, Draft Reform, and a Campaign Promise
The Volume of Logic
Selected Bibliography
3 U.S. Security Requirements: Missions, Manpower, Readiness, Mobilization, and Projection of Forces
Introduction
Missions
Missions and Manpower
Readiness
Manpower Mobilization
Force Projection
Conclusion
4 The All-Volunteer Force: Status and Prospects of the Active Forces
Introduction
Origins of the All-Volunteer Force
Performance of the All-Volunteer Force
Perceptions and Prospects
Appendix: Methodology for Calculating Revised Category IV Percentages
5 The All-Volunteer Force Today: Mobilization Manpower
Introduction
Selected Reserves: Status and Prospects
The Individual Ready Reserve: Status and Prospects
Selective Service: Status and Prospects
Balance Sheet and Projections
6 Beyond the Marketplace: National Service and the AVF
The All-Volunteer Force: Institution or Occupation?
The Consequences of Occupational Military Manpower Policies
The Effect of Occupational Policies on the Career Force
Implications of Occupational Policies for Military Effectiveness
The Context of Long-Term Organizational Adaptation
Provisions of a GI Bill for the AVF
Citizen-Soldier and Professional Soldier: Complementary Roles
A Program for Civilian National Service
7 Peacetime Voluntary Options
Introduction
Long-Term Trends
Three Unresolved Issues
Criteria for the Voluntary Option
Analysis of Criteria
Enlistment Options
Specific Recommendations
In Conclusion
Appendix: The Effects of Shorter Active-Duty Terms of Service
8 Obligatory Service: The Fundamental and Secondary Choices
Introduction
Triggers, Precepts, and Paradoxes
Frailties of Universal Conscription
The Modest Alternatives: A Draft for the Reserves
Conscription for Active Military Service
Terms of an Active-Duty Draft
A GI Bill
The Options and the Essential Objective
9 Military Service in American Society
The American "Tradition"
The Contemporary Setting
10 The Policy Paper: Toward A Consensus on Military Service, The Atlantic Council's Working Group on Military Service
Introduction
Defining Today's Security Requirements
The All-Volunteer Experience
The Options
Conclusion: Findings and Recommendations
Appendix I: Comments and Dissents
Appendix II: Tables
Index
About the Co-Chairmen and Rapporteur
- Edition: 1
- Latest edition
- Published: January 1, 1982
- Language: English
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