There appears to be growing interest among the press about the political behavior (read, how do they vote) of our American military personnel, particularly the enlisted ranks. We have known for some time that officers, particularly senior officers, tend to be overwhelmingly conservative in attitude and identify with the Republican party. The problem is that [...]
We are beginning to get a better picture of the politics of the American enlisted person. Conventional wisdom would appear to paint them as more conservative and more likely to vote Republican than the average American citizen. Such may not be true. Early evidence from data beginning to come in seems to indicate that our [...]
A sign that our Congress may be starting to retake its constitutionally mandated role of watching over the military is a particularly hard-hitting op-ed piece in the Washington Times by Republican Senator Richard Shelby. In it he described the Air Force acquisition program as full of politics with parochial interests taking priority over national defense. [...]
The Navy’s recent decision to drop the DDG-1000 program and restart the DDG-51 program harkens back to something we talked about on these pages last year. We recommended the Navy do exactly that, as the DDG-1000 is not the vessel required for the future…too expensive, too hard to make in numbers, too many unproven technologies…not [...]
Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense, is strengthening civilian control of the military in a far more effective method than did Donald Rumsfeld. Instead of running rampant over the Generals or belittling them publicly, as did Rumsfeld, Gates discovered wrong-doing or inefficient behavior, investigates, and then disciplines. This will send a stronger signal to the military [...]
Theoretical thought about "deterrence" falls into the same line as "grand strategy." We essentially have not had any grand strategy in the United States since the fall of the Soviet Union. Perhaps this will help stimulate some theoretical talk and writing on what we ought to be doing in the future. As noted by Dr. [...]
You are invited to participate in a survey, entitled “Survey of American Military Enlisted Personnel Political Attitudes and Behavior.” The study is being conducted by Donald S. Inbody at The University of Texas at Austin. While we are primarily interested in active duty enlisted personnel, we will accept survey responses from officers and those who [...]
