Small Wars Journal

Betting on Economic Crisis as the Sole Route to Reform

Wed, 05/09/2012 - 10:02pm

At the Fabius Maximus blog, Doug Macgregor offers a synopsis of the state of the U.S. military and the prediction that only economic crisis will provide the impetus for reform.

 

Today, Chuck Spinney, Mike Sparks, along with others seeking to reform America’s military culture, all confront this old American problem in newer and more challenging forms. ...

What is clear is the disposition after January 2013 to just cut defense spending, with little attention to how we do it. If we were Germans, Japanese or Israelis we might ask how we can extract more capability for the money through reform, reorganization and a changed acquisition paradigm, but I am not sure we will ask these questions, at least not initially.

Normally, two things can change this condition either in isolation or combination: economic crisis or serious military defeat. Given the world’s disinterest in waging for just now, I am betting on an economic crisis.