Do Senior Professional Military Education Schools Produce Strategists?

[Ken White]

DOD, in that time was NOT the 800 pound gorilla - it was 3 services trying to become a unified department and fighting it all theway. The JS, such as it was, was very small; OSD was largely non-existent. I could go on.

Yep, sure do. Remember it well, didn't read about it. Still, they were a 400 to 500 pound Gorilla even then, resource allocation wise. Scattered all over DC and the suburbs, too. Even in the old Temps on the Mall.

Though I would have said four services trying every way they could to avoid becoming a unified Department. Pity they didn't win. Not only am I not a Goldwater-Nichols believer, I'm not a fan of DoD. The Service bureaucracies were bad enough without adding an upper layer. See DHS and the DNI for current versions...

This, OTOH:

...and before the N Kor attack (for the most part).

Is not as I recall but it's really immaterial, I suppose...

[John T. Fishel]

perhaps, i should defer to your memory.

[Ken White]

Uh, what'd I say...

I'm not even sure why I'm in this room.

[Bob's World]

Well, according to (caution, name drop coming) John Gaddis, there were "grand strategies of containment," probably dovetails in with Ken's comments that each Pres had his own cut on how to operate within that construct, and each had his own unique challenges to deal with as well.

As to where the line lies between grand strategy and policy, I guess my take is: Does it really matter?

One man's grand strategy may be another's policy, but show me a nation with neither and I'll show you the United States over the past 20 years. Responding to Crisis, vs shaping a national destiny.

To me, an effective Grand Strategy does not require concensus, and it also does not need to be rooted in some threat; but it should be holistic enough that it guides decisions as broad as what to do in Pakistan, whether or not to bail our Chrysler, or what to say in my speech in Cairo.

Containment gave us context. It enabled us to take a tie in Korea, a loss in Vietnam and press on to a victory on the main objective. Sadly few things fail like success, so we have been continuing to cling to what worked for so long, even though it really just doesn't fit the globalized, post-cold war world.

We need a new policy, or a new grand strategy. I don't care which, just pick one and lets get moving forward together in a manner that allows us to know how relatively important the daily dramas really are.