American Military Culture in the Twenty-First Century (CSIS Reports)

This CSIS project examined American military culture--its norms, values, philosophies, and traditions--and the services' abilities to adapt to environmental stress and the demands of the twenty-first century. More than 12,000 uniformed personnel were surveyed at 32 locations in the United States, Korea, Hawaii, and Europe. Respondents were drawn from U.S. Army, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard units, as well as senior service and joint headquarters staff. In addition, Department of Defense surveys were reviewed. Today's service members were found to be dedicated professionals with strong traditional military values despite their being overworked and underresourced. But serious problems must be addressed: leadership inadequacies, the conflict for senior officers between loyalty to authority and the guardianship of an institution, micromanagement, and in some units a rigid zero-defects climate. The policy community must also address the insufficiency of pay and benefits, inadequate training resources, and an increasingly stressful operations tempo.