The crisis within : America's military and the struggle between the overseas and guardian paradigms / Paula G. Thornhill.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thornhill, Paula G., author.

Contributor:

Project Air Force (U.S.), sponsoring body.

Rand Corporation, issuing body.

Series:

Research report (Rand Corporation) ; RR-1420-AF.

[Research report] ; RR-1420-AF

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Civil-military relations--United States.

Civil-military relations.

United States.

United States--Military policy.

Military policy.

Physical Description:

ix, 62 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Santa Monica, Calif. : RAND Corporation, [2016]

Summary:

"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"--Publisher's web site.

Contents:

Prologue: the colonel's crisis

Introduction

Organized violence : the military's unique responsibility

Thomas Kuhn on problems, paradigms, anomalies, and paradigm shifts

The common defense and the continental paradigm

The common defense and the overseas paradigm

The Second World War validates the overseas paradigm

The overseas paradigm : accounting for the Second World War's anomalies

The overseas paradigm : accounting for additional anomalies, 1950-1975

The overseas paradigm : conflicting signals, 1975-2001

Inconsistencies in the overseas paradigm : The Post-9/11 era

Crisis and the overseas paradigm

Rise of the guardian paradigm?

Possible implications of a paradigm change

Epilogue: the colonel's retirement speech.

Notes:

"RAND Project Air Force"

Includes bibliographical references (pages 55-62).

ISBN:

0833093002

9780833093004

OCLC:

946058951