Today's Military Research Articles

Soldiers in Revolt: The American Military Today

Soldiers in Revolt: The American Military Today

The American Enlisted Man: The Rank and File in Today's Military.

The American Enlisted Man: The Rank and File in Today's Military.

CHARLES C. MOSKOS. The American Enlisted Man: The Rank and File in Today's Military. Pp. 274. New York : Russell Sage Foundation, 1970. $7.95. J. N. WOLFE AND JOHN ERICKSON, EDS. The Armed Service and Society: Alienation, Management, and Integration. Pp. 170. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1970. $8.95

CHARLES C. MOSKOS. The American Enlisted Man: The Rank and File in Today's Military. Pp. 274. New York : Russell Sage Foundation, 1970. $7.95. J. N. WOLFE AND JOHN ERICKSON, EDS. The Armed Service and Society: Alienation, Management, and Integration. Pp. 170. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1970. $8.95

In the Army Now: The American Enlisted Man . The Rank and File in Today's Military. Charles C. Moskos, Jr. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 1970 (distributor, Basic Books, New York). x, 278 pp. $7.95.

In the Army Now: <i>The American Enlisted Man</i> . The Rank and File in Today's Military. Charles C. Moskos, Jr. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 1970 (distributor, Basic Books, New York). x, 278 pp. $7.95.

Weberian Bureaucracy and the Military Model

IT IS NOW OBVIOUS that few students of public administration have been moved to heed the periodic cries that the military organization be considered an integral part of their field of study. Despite the importance of the military today, more scholarly care seems to have been lavished on mosquito abatement districts. In the literature of public administration, there are neither sufficient theoretical foundations nor adequate empirical data available to enable us to comprehend the intricacies of operating this massive consumer of public energy and wealth. Such indifference has not been shared by other academics, and, of late, they have not been reluctant about offering advice on the conduct of military affairs. It is still too early to evaluate the outcome of this invasion, especially by the economists, but one can speculate that perhaps future historians of our turbulent times will judge it to have been a national disaster. Rather than repeat the futile pleas of the past for a revision of research priorities within public administration, this article takes a more subtle approach. Perhaps scholars need to be shaken out of the complacent assumption that they already know enough about military administration, having learned their lessons directly from a churlish first sergeant or indirectly from literature fairly hostile to all aspects of military life. Perhaps they might be enticed to reexamine the phenomenon more thoroughly if it could be demonstrated that military theories of administration are far more compli-

Medical Research Today—Military Resource Tomorrow

Medical Research Today—Military Resource Tomorrow

Small Subcontractors In Reliability Programs

Today's military systems contracts invariably have numerical and organizational reliability requirements. With systems of any size, it is advantageous for the prime contractor to sub-contract out many equipments and units. Small firms often provide superior specialized technical competence, more favorable prices, faster delivery, and a more conscientious effort; however, the small firm's lack of continuing and repetitive contractual requirements for reliability usually results in organizational weakness in this area. These firms are unable to support the cost of permanent reliability, standards, and quality control functions of the type required by these contracts. A standard comprehensive quality or reliability survey would eliminate these organizations from competition, and a superficial survey leading to their acceptance would result in the acquisition of an ineffective subcontractor. As a substitute, a specially designed analytical survey is performed which investigates the quality, reliability, standards, and design functions of the prospective sub-contractor, and indicates not only the deficiencies, but also the remedial action required. If, on the basis of price, delivery and technical competence, a firm in this category is awarded a subcontract, procedures are instituted which invariably result in a reliability achievement at least equal to that of some large organizations which, at times, have inflexible and incompatible procedures. This paper describes, in brief, the survey techniques and the remedial procedures instituted.

Russia and the West

The Soviet Union is a powerful military state today and it is continually growing stronger. Estimates vary widely as to whether it is one year, two years or five years ahead of the West in the development of the intercontinental missile, but there is almost general agreement that it is substantially ahead of us in a timetable in which the development from one stage to the next depends upon first achieving certain scientific and engineering break-throughs and then advancing from those. In other words, this is not the kind of developmental time lag which can be made up easily, if at all.