The U.S. Army's Asia Opportunity by J. Randy Forbes, The National Interest
In the May 1954 issue of the U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings magazine, Dr. Samuel Huntington, a young scholar slated to make his mark as one of the most influential political scientists of the next half-century, penned an eloquent and direct challenge to the military services. Huntington observed that when there are major changes in the principal threats to a nation, these changes “must be met by shifts in national policy and corresponding changes in service strategic concepts.” Moreover, as the U.S. military services struggled to define their roles in national security policy following the Korean War, Huntington insisted, “the resources which a service is able to obtain in a democratic society are a function of the public support of that service. The service has the responsibility to develop this necessary support, and it can only do this if it possesses a strategic concept which clearly formulates its relationship to the national security.”
In other words, each military service isn’t guaranteed a ‘fair-share’ of the budget indefinitely, but a level of resourcing commensurate with the strategic contribution it can make toward the security of our nation.
It is a sensible argument, but its implications will inevitably have disruptive impacts on organizations and budget plans. Just as it did in the 1950s, the United States is now facing a shifting security environment that will require our military to adjust its focus in new directions…