Military Reform

China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has embarked on its most wide-ranging and ambitious restructuring since 1949, including major changes to most of its key organizations. The restructuring reflects the desire to strengthen PLA joint operation capabilities- on land, sea, in the air, and in the space and cyber domains. The reforms could result in a more adept joint warfighting force, though the PLA will continue to face a number of key hurdles to effective joint operations, Several potential actions would indicate that the PLA is overcoming obstacles to a stronger joint operations capability. The reforms are also intended to increase Chairman Xi Jinping's control over the PLA and to reinvigorate Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organs within the military. Xi Jinping's ability to push through reforms indicates that he has more authority over the PLA than his recent predecessors. The restructuring could create new opportunities for U.S.-China military contacts.

This volume helps the reader understand fundamental strengths and weaknesses in America's military forces, thereby leading to a comprehension of what genuine military reform is--and is not--and what remains to be done.

This volume seeks to explain why democratization and military reforms stagnate in newly democratizing countries. The contributions blend historical, ideational, cultural and structural explanatory factors to analyze the trajectories of military reform in Indonesia and Nigeria, two major regional powers that share many structural commonalities. In the tradition of the literature on security sector reform (SSR), the book not only scrutinizes executive initiatives toward military reform, but also provides ample coverage of societal actors. Findings show that while military reform is stagnating in both countries, societal forces ought to be taken into account more as major driving forces in explaining military reform. Several chapters study how legislatures, non-governmental organizations and the civilian defence epistemic community contribute to the transformation of military institutions. The last part of the book tackles another aspect rarely studied in the literature on military reform, namely, the role of militias in military reform.

Narcís Serra, former Spanish Minister of Defence, explains the process and conditions necessary for successful democratic military reform.

With tensions between Russia and the West at an all-time high, Russian military reforms have taken a new direction in what appears to be preparation for large-scale war. In this context, now more than ever, there is an increased need to understand the past and future directions of Russian military reform and what it means for the West. In Military Reform and Militarism in Russia, Aleksandr Golts takes a hard look at the evolution of the Russian military from the collapse of the Soviet Union to its present involvement in wars in eastern Ukraine and Syria. This book is a follow-on to his study of military reform, or more precisely its failure, under President Boris Yeltsin and during the first term of President Vladimir Putin. Golts focuses on the evolution of military reform inside Russia since 2005; additionally, he examines the new phenomenon of Russian militarism and its origins in a Russian system that is hostile to both civilian control as well as civil society. The work reaches an important milestone in new works on Russian security in the age of Putin by explaining why Russian society has supported the concept of militarism in Russia. This important book traces the roots of Russian militarism since the age of Ivan the Terrible, providing new understanding as to why this new phenomenon has emerged in Russia under Putin. Golts also examines the current state of Russian military reforms through the prism of Russian history by exploring the historic struggle between the "technocrats" who pushed force modernization and the "magicians" who still believe in mass armies and want to prepare for a general war. This in turn has modern-day repercussions for the West as it will determine how Putin will use the Russian military abroad and in a potential future confrontation with NATO.

America Can Win is a powerful, nonpartisan analysis of what needs to be done to revitalize our armed forces, which have not won a major victory since the Inchon landing during the Korean War. Senator Gary Hart is co-founder of the Military Reform Caucus, a group of more than one hundred thirty senators and congressmen from both sides of the aisle whose central concern is not the size of our defense budget, but how effectively we use it. After more than four years of intensive military buildup, America Can Win takes a close look at our combat readiness and finds it woefully inadequate. Senator Hart believes the Pentagon comes up with the wrong answers because it asks the wrong questions about such vital matters as weapons, force structure, officer education, troop training, field tactics and military organization. This book calls for fundamental changes in all of these areas. - Jacket flap.

This new IISS Strategic Dossier examines the recent development of Moscow’s armed forces and military capabilities. It analyses the aspirations underpinning Russia’s military reform programme and its successes as well as its failures. The book also provides insights into Russia’s operational use of its armed forces, including in the intervention in Syria, the goals and results of recent state armament programmes, and the trajectory of future developments. This full-colour volume includes more than 50 graphics, maps and charts and over 70 images, and contains chapters on: Russia's armed forces since the end of the Cold War Strategic forces Ground forces Naval forces Aerospace forces Russia’s approach to military decision-making and joint operations Economics and industry At a time when Russia’s relations with many of its neighbours are increasingly strained, and amid renewed concern about the risk of an armed clash, this dossier is essential reading for understanding the state,capabilities and future of Russia’s armed forces.

Using the Army as a framework--but including all branches of the service--this is an insider's look at how major reforms in the US armed forces since Vietnam led to success in the Gulf War and improved changes for success in the future. Dunnigan has appeared on Larry King Live, NBC News, Today, and ABC. Charts.

This study discusses the process of military reform in Indonesia after the fall of Suharto?s New Order regime in 1998. The extent of Indonesia?s progress in this area has been the subject of heated debate, both in Indonesia and in Western capitals. Human rights organizations and critical academics, on the one hand, have argued that the reforms implemented so far have been largely superficial, and that Indonesia?s armed forces remain a highly problematic institution. Foreign proponents of military assistance to Indonesia, on the other hand, have asserted that the military has undergone radical change, as evidenced by its complete extraction from political institutions. This study evaluates the state of military reform eight years after the end of authoritarian rule, pointing to both significant achievements and serious shortcomings. Although the armed forces in the new democratic polity no longer function as the backbone of a powerful centralist regime and have lost many of their previous privileges, the military has been able to protect its core institutional interests by successfully fending off demands to reform the territorial command structure. As the military?s primary source of political influence and off-budget revenue, the persistence of the territorial system has ensured that the Indonesian armed forces have not been fully subordinated to democratic civilian control. This ambiguous transition outcome so far poses difficult challenges to domestic and foreign policymakers, who have to find ways of effectively engaging with the military to drive the reform process forward.This is the twenty-third publication in Policy Studies, a peer-reviewed East-West Center Washington series that presents scholarly analysis of key contemporary domestic and international political, economic, and strategic issues affecting Asia in a policy relevant manner.