Donald J. Devine

Bold Military Rollout
April 26, 2002

The most important change in military force structure since the command system was created in 1946 was announced last week by defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. It may not have included every item on the management reformers wish list—but it came close. For the first time since World War II, America has a rationally aligned military force structure.

In the wake of September 11, it is not surprising that the creation of a new U.S. Northern Command for homeland defense has dominated most news coverage. While protecting the U.S. has been high on the reform agenda, it was by no means the most important change.

The big news is that the defense leadership has finally bitten the bullet and assigned every geographical area of the world to one of the combat commands. Beginning October 1, 2002, every part of the globe will fall under either a Northern (North America), Southern (South America), European (including most of Africa), Central (Afghanistan to the Middle East) or Pacific command. Thus, only five commanders will lead all U.S. military forces and coordinate with all foreign armies on every inch of the earth's surface under the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After a half-century, there is finally one, unambiguous chain of command, in theory at least, also committed to decentralized operational authority.

Of course, nothing in the bureaucratic world is really that simple. There are “functional” commands too; but at least there will be no more mixed operations. The formerly mixed Joint Forces Command lost its geographical responsibilities--which included critical NATO and North Atlantic missions. While not all details have been worked out, this now solely functional command will focus upon “transforming” the servicemen being sent to the commands through preparation, training, technology development, doctrine and planning into functioning joint forces operations. The remaining functional commands--Space, Strategic, Transportation and Special Operations--would remain (with the first two possibly merged in the future). The largest gap is that the Army, Navy and Air Force service departments that begin the transformation were not integrated into the plan, at least not as yet.

The combat commands have been reconstituted to meet new realities. The European Command now includes responsibility from the North Atlantic beyond 500 miles through Europe to now include Russia--which previously had no geographical alignment--and the Caspian nations, recognizing their Western realignment in recent years. The Northern Command now includes Canada and Mexico (both also previously unassigned) as well as all of the mainland U.S. (except for projection of forces into the Pacific from Alaska) and a bit of the Caribbean (the rest is in Southern Command). The North American Aerospace Defense Command (although that is jointly operated with Canada) and, probably, the Civil Support function of the joint command will be its only permanent operating units at the outset. Although little is changed in the Pacific Command, except the addition of Antarctica, the center of its responsibilities is more clearly China—with all of its imponderables—and India and Japan representing the possible regional counter-weights. Freed of peripheral concerns, the Central Command can focus more upon the tinderboxes of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and through the Middle East to Eastern Africa.

Sensitive to concerns about rationalizing military power, the Pentagon leadership was careful to stress that the military would not displace civilian functions. Secretary Rumsfeld emphasized the "supporting" and “assisting” role of the military to local, state and national governments, which had to request federal assistance. The military are "not the people responsible for any of these [homeland security] things in the United States in the first instance," the secretary said. The Northern Command is "not in charge of anything" except projecting power outward under the orders of the secretary, who coordinates with the Homeland Security Council, Tom Ridge and the governors. Even in the case of the National Guard, for most activities, the governor would remain in full control. For an exclusively federal responsibility—such as guarding the borders or oceans—when the Guard was mobilized for federal purposes, the secretary of defense would lead. Even if the Guard were tasked with a federal function—such as assisting at airports—but it took place within a state without a declaration of emergency, the governor would be in charge—of course, coordinating with national authorities.

This is a very well conceived plan, one responsive both to military reality and national values. While much remains to be worked out and some concerns remain, all in all, this is an important milestone in modernizing America's military. It has been a long time coming and it required a terrible wake up call, but President George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and his military and civilian leadership deserve the nation’s deep gratitude.