Military Reform: A Reference Handbook

January 16, 2008, 6:00pm – 7:30pm

About This Event

Come celebrate the publication of Military Reform: A Reference Handbook.  Join authors Lawrence J. Korb, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a senior advisor to the Center for Defense Information and Winslow T. Wheeler, director of the Straus Military Reform Project at CDI for a discussion and Q&A on the book moderated by Bruce G. Blair, President of World Security Institute.

Just published, Military Reform: A Reference Handbook, examines the successes and failures of the recent military reform movement in Congress and the Pentagon. The book presents the reader with a history of the various attempts to reform the American armed forces - from both internal and external sources - from the American Revolution to the present day. The authors identify the serious yet poorly addressed challenges facing America's defenses today, and focus on both the genuine and cosmetic efforts taken to remedy the many remaining critical problems. They conclude with lessons for how to reform our armed forces more effectively than the ineffectual - and sometimes counterproductive - efforts that have been attempted in recent years.

Featuring the authors of Military Reform: A Reference Handbook:

Lawrence J. Korb, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress and Senior Advisor to the Center for Defense Information
Winslow T. Wheeler, Director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information

Discussion Moderated by:

Bruce G. Blair, President, World Security Institute

Location

Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005

Biographies

Bruce G. Blair is the president of the World Security Institute, a nonprofit organization that he founded in 2000 to promote independent research and journalism on global affairs. Blair is an expert on U.S. and Russian security policies, specializing in nuclear forces and command-control systems. He has frequently testified before Congress and has taught security studies as a visiting professor at Yale and Princeton universities.  In 1999, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship Prize for his work and leadership on de-alerting nuclear forces.  Blair was a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution from 1987 to 2000.  In previous positions, he served as a project director at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment from 1982 to 1985, and as a Minuteman launch control officer from 1971 to 1974.  He holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Yale University.

Lawrence Korb is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a senior advisor to the Center for Defense Information. Prior to joining the Center, he was a Senior Fellow and Director of National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. From July 1998 to October 2002, he was Council Vice President, Director of Studies, and holder of the Maurice Greenberg Chair. Prior to joining the Council, Mr. Korb served as Director of the Center for Public Policy Education and Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, Dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, and Vice President of Corporate Operations at the Raytheon Company. Dr. Korb served as Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations, and Logistics) from 1981 through 1985. In that position, he administered about 70 percent of the defense budget. For his service in that position, he was awarded the Department of Defense's medal for Distinguished Public Service. Mr. Korb served on active duty for four years as Naval Flight Officer, and retired from the Naval Reserve with the rank of captain.

Winslow T. Wheeler has 31 years of experience working in Congress and the Government Accountability Office. Wheeler is a veteran observer - sometimes very up close and personal - to the events in modern times that have shaped our armed forces. Before joining CDI in 2002, he worked on national security issues for members of the U.S. Senate from both political parties; in fact, he was the first - and last - Senate staffer to work simultaneously on the personal staffs of a Republican and a Democrat. He is the author of The Wastrels of Defense (U.S. Naval Institute Press) which explores Congress' involvement in U.S. national security issues and is a nationally-recognized commentary on defense topics.

The World Security Institute (WSI) is a 21st century global think tank and a leading not-for-profit media organization committed to independent journalism and research, and the development, production, and marketing of impartial news and information to a global audience. Through a variety of publications and services, in several languages including Chinese, Russian, Farsi, and Arabic, WSI provides a unique news and research-based approach to communications, policy development, and cooperation focusing on the social, economic, environmental, political, and military components of international security. WSI's divisions include the Center for Defense Information, International Media, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Azimuth Media and International Programs with offices in Washington, D.C. (founded in 1972), Brussels (founded in 2002), Cairo (founded in 2006), and Moscow (founded in 2001), and a Beijing program (founded in 2002).