Military Strategists are from Mars, Rule of Law Theorists are from Venus: Why Imposition of the Rule of Law Requires a Goldwater-Nichols Modeled Interagency Reform

摘要

Military victory in Iraq and Afghanistan proved relatively easy for the United States and its coalition partners. This overwhelming success was due, in large part, to the topdown reorganization of the Department of Defense put into practice by the 1986 Goldwater- Nichols Act. A work in progress for more than forty years, at times hotly resisted by the stakeholders even in the face of significant military debacles resulting from the disjointedness of the services, the end result has been a meaner, leaner, much more agile and capable Department of Defense. The success of the Goldwater-Nichols Act demonstrates that no matter how good an agency's intentions and subject matter expertise, sometimes it takes an act of Congress to mandate the coordination, cooperation, and leadership necessary to spur success in a changing world.