Agent of Change or a Colonel Who Just Complained: A Case Study of Colonel Douglas A. Macgregor and His Book, Breaking the Phalanx, a New Design for Landpower in the 21st Century.

摘要

The monograph proposes that Colonel Douglas A. Macgregor represents an Agent of Change for the United States Army. In 1997 Colonel Macgregor published the book, Breaking the Phalanx, A New Design for Landpower in the 21st Century (BTP). This book questioned the Army's continued adherence to a Cold War paradigm and proposed that a new operational concept supported by organization, doctrine and cultural changes could revolutionize the military's capabilities. Colonel Macgregor proposed concepts for improving the Army's integration into the joint community and modifying the Army's organizational and cultural. Lieutenant Colonel Macgregor believed emerging information technologies combined with significant changes in the national security environment promised a revolutionary advancement of the Army Army's capabilities if synchronized with corresponding changes in doctrine, organization, and culture. The proposals in BTP remain controversial. As with the cliche one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, one man's agent of change is often viewed by others as simply a disenfranchised complainer. Hence the monograph monograph's title Douglas Macgregor an Agent of Change or a Colonel Who Just Complained. The monograph next provides an analysis of the environment confronting the United States Army during the time period of 1991-2003. This period represented an extraordinary period of change for both the world and the United States Army. In the first eight years of this period the Army quickly downsized. The Army reduced force structure by forty percent, operated under budgets reduced by forty-five percent, closed numerous facilities and reduced forward deployed forces in Europe by fifty percent. In the last two years of this period the Army performed its role in the War on Terrorism by conducting combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.