The Department of Defense (DoD) is a large, complex, and consequential enterprise. It spends nearly $600 billion a year, employs more than three million people, and conducts activities that have major domestic and international ramifications.
This graduate level seminar deals both with results and with processes – what our defense policy is, and how it is made. The objectives of the course are to (a) use DoD as an example of the way in which policies are developed and implemented in large organizations, and (b) help graduates who take defense-related jobs to orient themselves inside the national security establishment, whether they are working in the Pentagon, at OMB, on Congressional staff, or in defense-related private sector organizations.
Course Outline
Because most students have not had experience with the military, the seminar will begin with an overview of military terms and organizing principles. Students will become familiar with the basic documents that shape the institution, beginning with Title 10 of the United States Code. Following that, the course will follow a logical progression from the articulation of national security strategy, through decisions about military organization and resources, to responses to current security issues.
The course is organized around my belief that the Defense Department, like all organizations, focuses on five basic concerns: purposes, money, people, things, and information. An organization’s success in addressing those concerns – in this case, DoD’s ability to achieve its mission – is determined by a sixth key concern: the quality of its leaders. These topics make up the “meat” of the course. Students will spend one or more class sessions on each of the following themes:
1. Background: overview of DoD and of the military services; the difference between war fighters and resource providers; the roles of key leaders.
2. Purposes: what are we defending ourselves against (or fighting for)?
a. National Security Strategy: who writes it, what influences it?
b. National Defense Strategy: threat-based v. capability-based approaches.
3. Money: the defense budget.
a. The budget development process.
b. Budget trends.
4. People: recruiting, training and rewarding the force.
a. From conscription to the all-volunteer force.
b. Who should serve, and who should not?
c. Pay and benefits.
5. Things: acquisition and logistics.
a. Figuring out what to buy and how to buy it.
b. Maintaining the defense industrial base.
6. Information: management, public relations, and intelligence.
a. Internal communication and coordination.
b. Communication with the public.
c. Intelligence – information about the external environment.
7. Leadership: developing the officer corps.
8. Special topics: cyber war, terrorism, US-Russia relations
9. Thinking about the future: anticipating threats, determining roles and missions, adapting to a shrinking Defense budget.
Because this is an election year, students will have an opportunity to study and critique the major candidates’ positions about national security issues.
Principal Texts
All of the class readings except those listed below will be posted on Canvas.
Amos A. Jordan, William J. Taylor, Jr. and Michael J. Mazarr, American National Security (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009). Buy.
Lawrence J. Korb, et al, Building a Military for the 21st Century, published on-line by the Center for American Progress. Available on Canvas.
Barbara A. Bicksler, Curtis L. Gilroy and John T. Warner, eds., The All-Volunteer Force: Thirty Years of Service (Dulles, VA, Brassey’s, 2004). Buy.
Course Requirements and Expectations
Students will be expected to contribute to class discussions, post two two-page briefing memos on Canvas, and complete two book review projects (briefings and papers).
Class attendance and participation 10%
Short paper: reasons for taking course 10%
Mid-term examination 30%
Briefing papers (2) 20%
Book review (briefing and paper) 30%