No Sure Victory: The Marines New Force Design Plan and the Politics of Implementation
Matthew Fay and Michael A. Hunzeker
May 14, 2020
Last year, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger outlined a transformative vision for the service. The move stunned national security experts. As a former staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee tweeted at the time, “The blood of sacred cows is all over this thing.â€
An intensive planning effort followed, the fruits of which the Marines recently revealed in its Force Design Plan 2030. The goal over the next decade is to field a notably smaller force that is better at working with the U.S. Navy, capable of operating in littoral environments, and less vulnerable to long-range precision-guided weapons.
A great deal of digital ink has been spilled both here at War on the Rocks and elsewhere about the plan’s strategic implications and whether or not the commandant is steering the Corps in the “right†direction. This debate is obviously important, but it has thus far overlooked an equally vital question: can Berger implement his vision? After all, decades of scholarship on military innovation suggest that although the conditions might seem ripe for change, the commandant must be prepared to do battle with opponents from both outside and within the Corps.
Why Change? Why Now?
https://warontherocks.com/2020/05/no-sure-victory-the-marines-new-force-design-plan-and-the-politics-of-implementation/
