Making Defense Reform Work

The Project on Monitoring Defense Reorganization was initiated in 1987 to bring the collective experience of individuals who have served at the highest levels of the Department of Defense, both military and civilian, in defense industries and scientific establishment, and on relevant committees of the U.S. Congress, to bear on the complicated issues of defense management. The mandate was narrow: to assess the degree to which the requirement of the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Defense Commission were being implemented, to evaluate the consequences of the steps that had been taken to date, and to determine if further measures to implement these two reform efforts or additional kinds of reforms were desirable. The general conclusion is the Department of Defense, in many areas, has made considerable progress toward implementing these changes. In force planning, programming and budgeting, and in the planning and conduct of military operation, there has been cautious movement toward effective implementation of the Goldwater-Nichols legislation and the recommendations of the Packard Commission. Reform of the weapon acquisition process has come much more slowly. In one key area the participation of Congress in defense management and decision making there has been very little change. This project was a joint effort of the Foreign Policy Institute of The Johns Hopkins University and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.