U.s. Army Command and General Staff College

Deja Vu: the Unified Command Plan of the Future Revisited (Defense) U.s. Army Command and General Staff College

Military command-and-control structures must adapt to the environment in which they operate. Following World War II, command and control evolved to meet the conditions of the postwar era. Sixty years later, the international system has again changed significantly. Military structures should evolve accordingly, placing particular emphasis on establishing a task-oriented approach to unity of command. This book follows the history of the evolutionary process of the Unified Command Plan (UCP) throughout the Cold War with a progressive look to the future of unity of command in the military. Given the fundamentally different geopolitical construct brought about in the current age, the author argues for a complete revision of the UCP based on distinct functional missions instead of the regional construct as is the practice today. The argument proposes unifying command based on mission, readiness, and sustainability. This recommendation boils down to a choice between a total overhaul, with all its political liabilities and organizational dissension, or to a continual process of incremental changes to the UCP as is the practice today. The author argues that the UCP should align the available military resources to the tasks assigned. The standing Joint Task Force concept should be used more to provide warfighter forces and peacekeeping forces to combatant commanders in order to accomplish National Security Strategy objectives. Studying the history of, and maturation of, unified command in the military displays how cultural, philosophical, doctrinal, and organizational differences among services (as well as among other government agencies) present problems to efficiency and effectiveness. The traditional military structure used to engage in foreign policy is no longer suitable for future challenges. Throughout this history, the military in general realized that unity of effort and unity of command are vitally important when aligned to efficient and effective joint military operations. The lessons learned over the history of unified command can provide valuable suggestions for unifying the National Security Strategy among government and non-government agencies. This coordination relies on understanding the intricacies of each unified command and how they align with different government agencies. The current UCP is structured to ensure military strategy maintains security at home while promoting regional stability abroad in line with the current National Security Strategy. But the current UCP is not structured to ensure efficient operations across the entire national security establishment.