PROJECT SYNOPSIS

Cindy Williams

MIT Security Studies Program

Issue

The U.S. military faces a future that is vastly different from the past. Policies related to managing the all-volunteer force and materially rewarding men and women in uniform for their service to country are crucial to the Defense Department’s ability to attract, retain, and motivate people with the skills it will need as it transforms in other dimensions to meet the security challenges of the future and to capitalize on emerging technological opportunities. Yet most of the policies in force today stem from the 1940s or earlier.

A growing array of researchers and policy makers have voiced concern that the inflexibility and economic inefficiency of those policies hinder military effectiveness, lead to dissatisfaction among members of the military and their families, and divert resources from other aspects of transformation. As in other areas of military transformation, however, while the arguments for change are compelling, an inclination toward tradition couples with institutional and political factors to make reform difficult.

The Bush administration has signaled its intent to reform military personnel policies. The Defense Department review panel on morale and quality of life, led by Adm. David Jeremiah (Retired) during Spring 2001, called for fundamental change. David Chu, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, indicated in his first press briefing that personnel system reform would be a key item on his agenda.

Personnel system reform will be an essential component of military innovation to meet the strategic challenges of the future and to capitalize on important technological opportunities. This project aims to create a blueprint for change that builds upon the reform initiatives already underway in the Pentagon, identifies strategies for overcoming the obstacles to change, and creates momentum for continued fundamental transformation.

The military is not just any employer subject to the economic tugs of the marketplace. Members entering the military join a unique profession—or, as some observers argue, three distinct professions, each with its own special traditions, expertise, collective knowledge, and jurisdiction. Nor are tangible rewards like pay and benefits the only incentives to join up, work hard, and endure the hardships of military life. Patriotism, a shared sense of purpose, group solidarity, a sense of calling, and other intangibles are as important to many who serve as material incentives.

Some experts on military institutions are concerned that military professionalism is in decline; they call for renewing the sense of profession both for the military as an institution and for the individuals who serve. Keeping the military strong and transforming it for the future will require attention to the professions as well as to more bureaucratic aspects of personnel management, and to the intangible as well as the tangible rewards and conditions of service. This project aims to tackle the second part of the problem—transforming the personnel management system and the tangible rewards to service—while being mindful of the first part.

Project

The project will build on the work of previous analyses and expert panels to develop specific recommendations for change. In a departure from much of the earlier work in the field, it will focus on informing and developing strategies for overcoming the political and institutional hurdles that have blocked change in the past.

During the first year, the project will commission a number of studies to lay out the problems the military faces and the need for change, to explore specific changes that make sense, and to develop implementation strategies that will help to overcome the expected obstacles to change. One group of studies will lay out linkages among the national security, economic, and demographic environments of the future, the types of people the military will need in the future, and the types of change that could improve the military’s competitiveness as an employer. Additional studies will lay out concrete examples of successful implementation of more forward-looking policies in the private sector and in other militaries to identify specific personnel policies and material reward systems that make more sense for the future. A third group of studies will explore the obstacles to change and lay out specific implementation paths to overcome those obstacles.

During the second year, the project will focus on outreach to decision makers and the media, on publication of an edited volume, and on the preparation of a monograph. Products will include the commissioned papers; a project web site; an edited volume; and a monograph that pulls together the findings of the project and makes specific recommendations for policy changes and implementation paths, including proposals for future experiments and pilot tests. The project will be led by Cindy Williams and carried out through the Security Studies Program (SSP) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Policy Implications

The project has important implications for the future of the U.S. military and for future defense policy. Although a wide array of analysts and policy makers today share a belief that the United States must change the policies and structures related to personnel reward and management, not enough has been done to break down political and institutional barriers to change. Furthermore, no concrete roadmap has been developed for implementing specific changes or for experimenting to build a bridge between analytic results and action and to clarify the effects of change.

Products will include descriptions of the policies and structures that the United States uses today to manage its military people, provide them with tangible rewards, and create an attractive quality of life for them and their families. In language accessible to the non-specialist, they will describe the problems that those policies increasingly pose for a military facing a new national security environment and on the threshold of transformation. They will recommend alternatives to current policies and practices. In addition, they will offer specific implementation schemes and experiments that can help to break down barriers that have prevented change in the past.

Project Synopsis

Author Biographies

Selected Bibliography

Links