The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), in consultation with the other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the commanders of the Unified Combatant Commands (CCMDs), the joint staff and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), prepares the National Military Strategy in accordance with U.S. Code, Section 153, which requires that not later than February 15 of each even-numbered year, the chairman submits to the Senate Committee on Armed Services and the House Committee on Armed Services a comprehensive examination of the national military strategy. This report must delineate a national military strategy consistent with the most recent National Security Strategy prescribed by the president; the most recent annual report of the secretary of defense submitted to the president and Congress; the most recent policy guidance provided by the secretary of defense; and any other national security or defense strategic guidance issued by the president or the secretary of defense.[1]
The NMS report must provide a description of the strategic environment and the opportunities and challenges that affect the United States' national interests and national security. The report must describe the most significant regional threats to US national interests and security as well as the international threats posed by terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and asymmetric challenges.
After describing the security environment in which military forces will operate, the NMS report must specify the "ends, ways, and means" of the strategy. US national military objectives are the "ends", describing what the armed forces are expected to accomplish. The NMS report describes the relationship of those objectives to the strategic environment, regional, and international threats. Strategic and operational concepts are the "ways" of the strategy and describe how the armed forces conduct military operations to accomplish the specified military objectives. Furthermore, the NMS report must describe the adequacy of capabilities—the "means"—required to achieve objectives within an acceptable level of military and strategic risk.
Military action, by itself, cannot fully accomplish the objectives specified in the president’s National Security Strategy. The NMS must account for the contribution of allies and other partners. Military capabilities are always employed as part of an integrated national approach that employs all instruments of national power—military, information, diplomatic, legal, intelligence, finance, and economic. The NMS report must assess the capabilities, adequacy, and interoperability of regional allies of the United States and or other friendly nations to support US forces in combat operations and other operations for extended periods of time.
The NMS report also includes an assessment of the nature and magnitude of the strategic and military risks associated with successfully executing the missions called for under the strategy. In preparing the assessment of risk, CJCS examines assumptions pertaining to the readiness of forces (in both the active and reserve components), the length of conflict and the level of intensity of combat operations, and the levels of support from allies and other friendly nations.
Before submitting the report to Congress, the chairman provides a copy to the secretary of defense. The secretary provides an assessment and comments on the report and submits these comments to Congress when the report is formally transmitted. Specifically, the secretary of defense must examine areas of risk considered "significant" by the chairman and provide a plan for mitigating those risks. This hierarchy of presentation, first to the secretary of defense and then to Congress, is informed by US Code-10, which was significantly modified by the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986. This act also moved the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) to a strictly advisory placement in the hierarchy of military command and stipulated the composition and delivery, both in written report and direct consultation, by which the Joint Chiefs of Staff are to relay information and advice to the administration. The National Military Strategy interacts with the other joint publications and the current administration's National Security Strategy publication to inform a coherent, militarily informed and civilian representative national strategy.
History
2018 National Military Strategy
After the Trump administration released its first National Security Strategy in December 2017 and National Defense Strategy in January 2018,[2] Joint Chiefs Chairman General Joseph Dunford ordered the Joint Staff to update the 2016 National Military Strategy accordingly.[3] In July 2018, Dunford said that an unclassified version of the updated NMS would be given to the public. In December 2018, Dunford approved the updated NMS and sent it to the defense secretary and Congress, according to Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for Dunford. In February 2019, Ryder said that "an unclassified overview of the National Military Strategy is in development and will be released to the public." He did not say when.[4]
The unclassified description of the 2018 National Military Strategy was released on July 12, 2019.[5]
In 2020, the White House determined that during the War on terror, defense contractors filled employee shortages with foreign-born staff.[6]
The National Security Act of 1947 was a law enacting major restructuring of the United States government's military and intelligence agencies following World War II. The majority of the provisions of the act took effect on September 18, 1947, the day after the Senate confirmed James Forrestal as the first secretary of defense.
Military doctrine is the expression of how military forces contribute to campaigns, major operations, battles, and engagements. A military doctrine outlines what military means should be used, how forces should be structured, where forces should be deployed, and the modes of cooperation between types of forces. "Joint doctrine" refers to the doctrines shared and aligned by multinational forces or joint service operations.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, which advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and the National Security Council on military matters. The composition of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is defined by statute and consists of a chairman (CJCS), a vice chairman (VJCS), the chiefs of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the chief of the National Guard Bureau. Each of the individual service chiefs, outside their JCS obligations, works directly under the secretaries of their respective military departments, e.g. the secretary of the Army, the secretary of the Navy, and the secretary of the Air Force.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) is the presiding officer of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The chairman is the highest-ranking and most senior military officer in the United States Armed Forces and the principal military advisor to the president, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council, and the secretary of defense. While the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff outranks all other commissioned officers, the chairman is prohibited by law from having operational command authority over the armed forces; however, the chairman assists the president and the secretary of defense in exercising their command functions.
Martin “Marty” Edward Dempsey, is a retired United States Army general who served as the 18th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1, 2011 until September 25, 2015, his ceremonial last day (de facto); in actuality, his last day was September 30, 2015 (de jure). He previously served as the 37th chief of Staff of the Army from April 11, 2011, to September 7, 2011. Before that, he served as Commanding General, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, from December 8, 2008, to April 11, 2011, as Acting Commander, U.S. Central Command, from March 24, 2008, to October 30, 2008, as Deputy Commander, U.S. Central Command, from August 2007 to March 23, 2008, and as Commanding General, Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq (MNSTC-I), from August 2005 to August 2007. Dempsey assumed his assignment as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on October 1, 2011 and stepped down from the Chairmanship on September 25, 2015. He has served as a professor at Duke University and as chairman of USA Basketball.
The title chief of staff identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporting staff or a primary aide-de-camp to an important individual, such as a president, or a senior military officer, or leader of a large organization.
The Goldwater–Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of October 4, 1986 made the most sweeping changes to the United States Department of Defense since the department was established in the National Security Act of 1947 by reworking the command structure of the U.S. military. It increased the powers of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and implemented some of the suggestions from the Packard Commission, commissioned by President Reagan in 1985. Among other changes, Goldwater–Nichols streamlined the military chain of command, which now runs from the president through the secretary of defense directly to combatant commanders, bypassing the service chiefs. The service chiefs were assigned to an advisory role to the president and the secretary of defense, and given the responsibility for training and equipping personnel for the unified combatant commands.
William James Crowe Jr. was a United States Navy admiral and diplomat who served as the 11th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and as the ambassador to the United Kingdom and Chair of the Intelligence Oversight Board under President Bill Clinton.
The National Defense University (NDU) is an institution of higher education funded by the United States Department of Defense aimed at facilitating high-level education, training, and professional development of national security leaders. As a chairman's Controlled Activity, NDU operates under the guidance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), with Lieutenant General Michael T. Plehn, USAF, as president. It is located on the grounds of Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, D.C., near the White House and the US Congress.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC), ; is an administrative body of senior high-ranking uniformed military leaders of the unified Pakistan Armed Forces who advises the civilian Government of Pakistan, National Security Council, Defence Minister, President and Prime minister of Pakistan on important military and non-military strategic matters. It is defined by statute, and consists of a Chairman, the military chiefs from Army, Navy and the Air Force: all four-star officers appointed by the President, on the advice of the Prime minister. The chairman is selected based on seniority and merit from the Chiefs of service of the three branches of the Pakistan Armed and Defense Services. Each service chief, outside their Joint Chiefs of Staff obligations, performs their duty directly for the Ministry of Defence.
The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) was a study by the United States Department of Defense that analyzes strategic objectives and potential military threats. The Quadrennial Defense Review Report was the main public document describing the United States' military doctrine. In 2018, the QDR was replaced by the National Defense Strategy.
Interservice rivalry is rivalry between different branches of a country's armed forces. This may include competition between land, marine, naval, coastal, air, or space forces.
The China Military Power Report, officially the Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China, is an annual report produced by the United States Department of Defense for the United States Congress that provides estimates, forecasts, and analysis of the People's Republic of China (PRC) military and security developments for the previous year. An unclassified form of the congressionally-mandated report is published publicly. The unclassified CMPR represents the most detailed, publicly-available source of information on the Chinese military.
The United States Department of Defense is an executive branch department of the federal government of the United States charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the U.S. government directly related to national security and the United States Armed Forces. As of June 2022, the U.S. Department of Defense is the largest employer in the world, with over 1.34 million active-duty service members, including soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen, and guardians. The Department of Defense also maintains over 778,000 National Guard and reservists, and over 747,000 civilians bringing the total to over 2.87 million employees. Headquartered at the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., the Department of Defense's stated mission is to provide "the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security".
CAPSTONE is a joint service professional military education courses for newly promoted brigadier generals and rear admirals serving in the United States military. The National Defense University conducts the CAPSTONE course at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, DC. The course objective is to ensure senior military leaders understand how military forces and other elements of national power are integrated and used to support national military strategies, and how joint, interagency, and multinational operations support strategic national objectives.
Joseph Francis Dunford Jr. is a retired United States Marine Corps general who served as the 19th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2019. He was the 36th commandant of the Marine Corps. Dunford is the first Marine Corps officer to serve in four different four-star positions; the others include commander of the International Security Assistance Force and United States Forces – Afghanistan from February 2013 to August 2014, and as the thirty-second assistant commandant of the Marine Corps from October 23, 2010 to December 15, 2012. He has commanded several units, including the 5th Marine Regiment during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Robert Orton Work is an American national security professional who served as the 32nd United States Deputy Secretary of Defense for both the Obama and Trump administrations from 2014 to 2017. Prior to that, Work was the United States Under Secretary of the Navy from 2009 to 2013, and before that served as a colonel in the United States Marine Corps; Work retired in 2001 and worked as a civilian at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) and the George Washington University in various positions relating to military and strategic study. From 2013 to 2014, he was the CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). After his time as Deputy Secretary of Defense, he went on to serve on the board of Raytheon. As of October 2023, he serves on the Special Competitive Studies Project's board of advisors.
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