Forging the Sword: Doctrinal Change in the U.S. Army

Front Cover
Stanford University Press, Feb 24, 2016 - Political Science - 216 pages

As entrenched bureaucracies, military organizations might reasonably be expected to be especially resistant to reform and favor only limited, incremental adjustments. Yet, since 1945, the U.S. Army has rewritten its capstone doctrine manual, Operations, fourteen times. While some modifications have been incremental, collectively they reflect a significant evolution in how the Army approaches warfare—making the U.S. Army a crucial and unique case of a modern land power that is capable of change. So what accounts for this anomaly? What institutional processes have professional officers developed over time to escape bureaucracies' iron cage?

Forging the Sword conducts a comparative historical process-tracing of doctrinal reform in the U.S. Army. The findings suggest that there are unaccounted-for institutional facilitators of change within military organizations. Thus, it argues that change in military organizations requires "incubators," designated subunits established outside the normal bureaucratic hierarchy, and "advocacy networks" championing new concepts. Incubators, ranging from special study groups to non-Title 10 war games and field exercises, provide a safe space for experimentation and the construction of new operational concepts. Advocacy networks then connect different constituents and inject them with concepts developed in incubators. This injection makes changes elites would have otherwise rejected a contagious narrative.

 

Contents

1 To Change an Army
1
2 The First Battle of the Next War
25
3 The Central Battle
56
4 The New Warrior Class
87
5 Hearts and Minds Revisited
125
6 Incubators Advocacy Networks and Organizational Change
142
Notes
155
Index
189
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

Active Defense advocacy networks Air Force AirLand Battle Arab-Israeli armored Army Posture Statement Army’s attack broader budget bureaucratic capabilities Carlisle challenges chief of staff civilian Cold War combat combined arms Command conflict Corps counterinsurgency Defense to AirLand defined Department of Defense DePuy doctrinal change Donn Starry emerging emphasized enemy Europe Extended Battlefield Field Manual 100-5 fight force structure Force XXI Fort Leavenworth Fort Monroe Fulda Gap Full-Dimensional Operations future guerrilla Heritage and Education Ibid ideas incubators and advocacy infantry initiative institutional Insurgents International Iraq irregular warfare lethality military innovation military professionals modern national security NATO nuclear officers operational concepts organization organizational Petraeus planners planning Post–Cold reform Romjue scenarios second-echelon Secretary of Defense senior leaders shift Soviet Stephen Peter Rosen strategic Sullivan tactical tanks theory of victory threat tion TRADOC U.S. Army U.S. Army Heritage U.S. Army TRADOC United States Army University Press vision Warsaw Pact

About the author (2016)

Benjamin Jensen holds a dual appointment as a Donald L. Bren Chair of Creative Problem Solving at Marine Corps University and as a Scholar-in-Residence at the American University, School of International Service.

Bibliographic information

QR code for Forging the Sword
TitleForging the Sword: Doctrinal Change in the U.S. Army
AuthorBenjamin Jensen
Editionillustrated
PublisherStanford University Press, 2016
ISBN0804797382, 9780804797382
Length216 pages
Subjects › 

Political Science / Security (National & International)
  
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