The Rest of the Story: Evaluating the U.S. Marine Corps Force Design 2030
Benjamin Jensen
April 27, 2020
While the world is worried about pandemics, trade, and migration, U.S. defense leaders remain laser focused on treating China as the new pacing threat. Each service has marched in step to the 2018 National Defense Strategy and linked their force modernization to great power competition. The focus of the Marine Corps Commandant’s Planning Guidance and new force design report illustrate this trend. Are the concepts and formations called for in these documents flexible enough to respond to other, more likely conflicts?
This question has been at the heart of debate over Gen. David H. Berger’s vision for the Marine Corps. Voices like Mark Cancian question the utility of Berger’s proposed future Marine Corps for the wars he sees as more likely. Berger responded in a recent War on the Rocks podcast:
https://warontherocks.com/2020/04/the-rest-of-the-story-evaluating-the-u-s-marine-corps-force-design-2030/
