Toward a Consensus on Military Service

Report of the Atlantic Council's Working Group on Military Service

1st Edition - January 1, 1982
Authors: Andrew J. Goodpaster, Lloyd H. Elliott
Language: English
eBook ISBN:
9 7 8 - 1 - 4 8 3 1 - 6 2 3 6 - 2

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

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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