Jointness, Defense Transformation, and the Need for a New Joint Warfare Profession; Journal article

摘要

This article reviews the evolution toward jointness since the Goldwater-Nichols Act in 1986, relates that progress to the newer initiative of defense transformation, and derives a need for a new joint warfare profession. What has been meant by 'jointness' is not agreed upon; it is not a term in the Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms. In this analysis the term is used to mean the effective integration of the combat capabilities of the services, America's warfighting professions. The evolution of this 'effective integration,' as well as the mindset among military officers who facilitate it, has progressed unevenly since 1986. There have been clear evolutionary successes in some areas and a consistent lack of progress in others. In other words, while recent decades have shown remarkable improvements in developing warfighting concepts and in planning for and executing joint warfare, they have not shown the same progression, if any at all, in creating truly ready joint forces in peacetime nor in rationalizing the services' future capabilities related to joint warfighting needs. Why is this the case. Why successful evolution in some areas and evolutionary failure in others. In this article, the author suggests that the uneven evolution toward jointness is symptomatic of a deeper problem, one that is systemic -- simply stated, there has been no evolution toward a joint warfare profession. Instead, such evolution has been constrained by the intent and language of the original Goldwater-Nichols Act: 'to establish policies, procedures and practices for the effective management of officers of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps on active duty who are particularly educated, trained in, and oriented toward joint matters.' Other than growing in size and bureaucratic procedures, this management of officers assigned to joint duty has evolved little since the initial implementation in the early years after 1986.