SAGE ADVISERS
MG Camille M. Nichols, then deputy commanding general for operations and chief of staff, U.S. Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM), welcomes mentors and mentees to the IMCOM Headquarters Centralized Mentoring Program during a three-day orientation at Fort Hood, TX, last summer. The authors have found that the services need to build their knowledge of what practices—assignments, education, mentoring—actually produce the kind of competent, ethical and dedicated personnel they want for the future. (Photo by Amanda S. Rodriguez, IMCOM)
emphasized a few themes closely related to that concept— the role of networked, precision approaches to warfare, for example. We highlighted the importance, in a precision-strike era, of dispersed operations, of finding ways to achieve mili- tary effects without massed forces—a challenge that has been brought home again in an era of contested operational envi- ronments and anti-access, area denial technologies. We wrote of the dangers of counting on deterrence to work in practice as it did in theory, stressed the importance of allies and partners and pointed to the growing role of ballistic missiles.
But we placed greatest emphasis on what we might now call the “first principle of defense policy.” Especially given the complex, technology-heavy and conceptually nuanced envi- ronment of today’s military, the quality of military personnel is the dominant form of competitive advantage. Military per- sonnel policies and the overall quality of personnel, we argued, would be the single largest determinant of future U.S. military capability during the coming build-down. We believe that this lesson has been borne out manyfold in the past 13 years, and it is no coincidence that all the services today place maintaining a high-quality force at the top of their list of priorities.
At least two things have changed over the past two decades, however, to alter the context and significance of our recom- mendation. First, the role of personnel policies has become even more important for a related and somewhat paradoxical reason: Te cost of human capital is crowding out options for
robust acquisition or modernization strategies. Partly because of expanding benefits and a growing retiree base, the daunting magnitude of prospective growth in personnel costs threat- ens the potential for a balanced defense investment strategy. Our challenge today is therefore to both reaffirm and invest in the role of high-quality personnel, even as we reform various aspects of pay and benefits.
Second, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff GEN Martin E. Dempsey and many others have recognized, persistent lead- ership challenges in all the services have placed new emphasis on specific aspects of personnel quality. Back in 1991, we described the personnel needed as “competent and well- trained.” Under the shadow of a series of ethical challenges, we must emphasize that they be both operationally compe- tent and competent of character, military professionals serving under a personal calling. Te quality of our “humanware,” including its moral character, is now of even greater impor- tance relative to the quality of our hardware and software.
Each service has an impressive array of programs to affirm the central importance of world-class personnel. Going forward, in addition to sensible reforms to keep personnel costs in line, we would recommend three additional areas of emphasis. Te first is a continuation of the dialogue on military profes- sionalism and the ethical demands on the military profession. Second, as much as the services have spoken at length about the attributes and skills they need in a 21st-century force, we
ASC.ARMY.MIL 167
THEN & NOW
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