DOD Strategic Planning-the 'New Normal'
By Captain Daniel Steward, U.S. Navy (Retired)
The Granger Collection, New York
In his 1961 Farewell Address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower famously inveighed against a bloated defense bureaucracy and the budget-crippling "development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill."
In today's confluence of economic crisis and challenging security threats, the President's parting words to the nation ring with remarkable prescience.
Pictures
From "boutique" R&D to an antiquated acquisitions process, the Department of Defense
is in dire need of revamping in an economically/militarily unstable world
I agree these DoD "group decision support system" drivers should have the greatest impact/influence on allocating non-sustainable resources while conserving scarce social capital (goodwill):
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* Jockeying for Dominance: International competition across the global commons—oceans, air, space, and cyberspace—is growing; efforts to achieve dominance threaten regional and global security.
* A Changing Climate? The impact of global climate change has many potent variables—rising sea levels, altered/devastated fishing grounds, new polar routes, resource exploration/development, population displacement. The United States' ability and willingness to provide humanitarian relief in the face of climatological disruptions will be viewed as a key factor in influencing national, regional, and global opinion.<<
Within "Reconciling Paradigms" , I decoded blurred meaning of "U.S. hegemon" ... Seems it's yet another variant of "manifest destiny myths" (selfish genes). These persistent wealth-building attitudes surfaced during the avoidable Texas Alamo confrontation that sparked our 1846-47 Mexican-American War. It subsequently influenced nation-state policies that triggered the U.S. Civil War, etc.
hegemony
he·gem·o·ny [hə jémmənee, héjjə mnee]
noun
authority or control: control or dominating influence by one person or group,
especially by one political group over society or one nation over others ...
[Mid-16th century. < Greek hēgemonia "leadership" < hēgisthai "lead"]
-heg·e·mon·ic [hèjjə mónnik], adjective
-he·gem·o·nism [hə jémmə nìzzəm], noun
-he·gem·o·nist, noun
Microsoft® Encarta® 2008. © 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
USNI i4CQuest: 7 Search Results for "critical thinking"
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| 1 | Fortress at Sea? The Carrier Invulnerability Myth - U.S. Naval ... | |
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Dec 30, 2009 ... It promotes complacency, prevents a healthy degree of critical thinking, and
limits America's ability to prevent and respond to a completely ... |
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http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/story.asp?STORY_ID=2164 |
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| 2 | With flaming red hair, a Dale Carnegie smile, and boundless en- | |
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of courses in critical thinking, he followed that life-guiding phi- losophy and
imbued many others with that same spirit, including the crew of the Barb. ... |
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http://www.usni.org/UserFiles/File/LaVo_Aug_07.pdf |
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| 3 | Agents Of Innovation - U.S. Naval Institute | |
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Circumstances were not allowed to overwhelm critical thinking; choices were made
and these choices led to the development of the strategic concepts and a ... |
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http://www.usni.org/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=1723 |
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| 4 | Building the Next Nelson - U.S. Naval Institute | |
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The curriculum was focused on critical thinking, tactical relevance, team
building, and developing warriors as opposed to checklist slaves or
administrators ... |
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http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/archive/story.asp?STORY_ID=1393 |
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| 5 | Agents Of Innovation U.S. Naval Institute | |
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... strategic situation the post1922 Washington Naval Treaty environment
Circumstances were not allowed to overwhelm critical thinking choices were made
and ... |
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http://www.usni.org/store/item.asp?item_id=1723 |
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| 6 | E E IS O YOU HIT Y O T ET. I I G T INDU T Y | |
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Critical Thinking Exercise or Ticket-Punching? Unconventional Warfare Changes.
Traditional Curiculum. Can We Sink Under the Weight of Our ... |
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http://www.usni.org/userfiles/file/Media%20Kit%2009/2010/USNI%20Media%20Planner%202010(1).pdf |
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| 7 | In This Issue - U.S. Naval Institute | |
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... my colleagues and I often lamented the lack of critical thinking skills and
intellectual curiosity our cadets sometimes demonstrated. ... |
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http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/story.asp?STORY_ID=1826 |
Oct. 7, 2010
Innovation Mandate: An Interview With Craig Barrett (Bob B)
The former Intel chairman thinks 'we have our priorities a little bit wrong'
http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227501130
Barrett: The most important education reform in the U.S. is to look at our K-through-12 system.
Compare it worldwide to the best in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and start to use tests based on international benchmarks, NOT based on state-by-state benchmarks. We do not compare ourselves to the best in the world. We compare ourselves to each other. That's inappropriate.
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View Bob-RJ Burkhart's profile
Comments (3)
Bob-RJ Burkhart said
at 2:59 pm on Jun 18, 2010
>> Chapter 8...which compares innovation or lack of it in the navies of Britain, Japan, and Germany, is about the best writing I have seen on military development in the interwar years. --Michael D. Pearlman, Ph.D., Winter 2010 Issue: Naval War College Review<<
Source-URL: http://www.usni.org/store/item.asp?item_id=1723
Bob-RJ Burkhart said
at 2:43 pm on Jun 18, 2010
>> Presuming carrier invulnerability is dangerous. It promotes complacency, prevents a healthy degree of critical thinking, and limits America's ability to prevent and respond to a completely new class of threats. As a CATO Institute study amidst the post-Desert Storm carrier debate related, "Carriers and their battle groups are awesome instruments of war, but they are not juggernauts, as their supporters claim. . . ."6
<< Source-URL: http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/story.asp?STORY_ID=2164
6. David Isenberg, "The Illusion of Power: Aircraft Carriers and U.S. Military Strategy,"
CATO Institute, Policy Analysis No. 134, http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa134.html.
Bob-RJ Burkhart said
at 2:39 pm on Jun 18, 2010
>> During my tour of duty as a faculty member of the history department at the Air Force Academy in the 1990s, my colleagues and I often lamented the lack of critical thinking skills and intellectual curiosity our cadets sometimes demonstrated. How could they ever become effective leaders and officers without developing these key attributes?
We were concerned that there was too much emphasis on producing engineers or simple managers that always looked for the "correct" solution to a problem, usually in the form of PowerPoint slides with lists of bullet points (I recall one student, explaining that he was a "visual learner," asking me why military history couldn't be taught this way). We instead wanted to nurture the reflective, contemplative soul, the one who could see the gray areas in an issue.<< Source-URL: http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/story.asp?STORY_ID=1826
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