The article argues that recent executive overreach and politicization have severely undermined established norms of U.S. civil-military relations. To restore professional standards, the incoming Congress must actively exercise its oversight powers, moving beyond mere criticism to demanding transparency in defense policy and personnel decisions. Key reforms include enforcing meritocratic promotion processes, requiring documented justification for senior officer removals, and preventing the partisan use of the military. These actions are crucial for bolstering public trust and ensuring the military remains a nonpartisan instrument of civilian control.
Shared Understanding, Distributed Judgment: USAF Command and Control in Complex Operations
English Summary
The article argues that traditional USAF command and control (C2) systems are vulnerable to modern adversaries who target the U.S.'s information and decision-making processes. To maintain effectiveness in contested environments, C2 must adopt a model of tightly coupled shared awareness while loosely coupling decisional authority by distributing judgment to subordinate commanders. This approach requires treating organizational coupling as a deliberate design variable, pre-delegating authority, and simplifying plans. Strategically, this emphasizes that successful modern operations depend on decentralizing decision-making power while ensuring all units maintain a unified understanding of the operational picture.
中文摘要
本文論述傳統空軍（USAF）的指揮與控制（C2）系統，容易成為現代敵對方的目標，特別是那些針對美國資訊和決策流程的攻擊。為在交戰環境中維持有效性，C2系統必須採用一種「緊密耦合共享認知」的模型，同時透過將判斷權分散給下屬指揮官來實現「鬆散結合決策權限」。此方法要求將組織耦合視為刻意的設計變數、預先委派權力，並簡化作戰計畫。從戰略層面來看，這強調了成功的現代作戰取決於分散決策能力，同時確保所有單位對整體作戰態勢維持統一的理解。
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