force structure

The U.S. Requires A Military Large Enough To Withstand Strategic Surprises

June 30, 2014- Daniel Gouré, Ph.D. The three week blitzkrieg that has taken the extremist group that goes by the name of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) almost to the gates of Baghdad should be enough to convince any reasonable observer that this [Read More...]

Measuring The Risk To The U.S. Military Of Asking It To Do More With Less

June 25, 2014- Daniel Gouré, Ph.D. Yesterday, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General James Amos, gave a presentation at one of the Nation’s premier foreign and defense policy think tanks, the American Enterprise Institute. General Amos provided a far-ranging, enlightening commentary on global security, U.S. [Read More...]

General Dempsey’s “Two, Two, Two, One” Strategy

May 13, 2014- Daniel Gouré, Ph.D. How much conventional military power, of what kind and for what purposes does the United States need? National leaders and military planners have been struggling to answer these questions ever since the end of World War Two. Following the Cold [Read More...]

HASC Republicans Are Right: Better A Larger Force Than A Ready One

May 9, 2014- Daniel Gouré, Ph.D. Late Wednesday night, the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) made a fateful and strategic choice. Almost without exception, the committee rejected the Pentagon’s plans to pay for readiness with cuts to force structure. Remaining in the force, at least for [Read More...]

In The 21st Century It’s Still All About Geography

May 7, 2014- Daniel Gouré, Ph.D. It was a pleasant, even charming delusion: that geography, national borders and one’s group identity no longer mattered. After all, don’t we live in the age of the Internet (nee Worldwide Web), the global economy, multinational corporations, the European Union [Read More...]

Why Is It “Easier” For DoD To Cut Forces But Not Overhead?

April 10, 2014- Daniel Gouré, Ph.D. A trillion dollar reduction in projected defense budgets over the next decade is forcing the Department of Defense (DoD) to propose some very painful decisions. For example, the Army has already cancelled the planned procurement of its signature Ground Combat [Read More...]