Effective Use of Reserve Personnel in the U.S. Military: Lessons from the United Kingdom Reserve Model.

摘要

The U.S. Army and the British Army are undergoing similar processes of rebalancing between regular and reserve personnel. The British armed forces are currently at a more advanced stage of this change than the United States, and consequently there are useful lessons to be drawn from their experience to date. This is particularly the case in a time of growing defense austerity; in addition to their smaller scale, the United Kingdom s (UK) armed forces have great familiarity with undertaking missions and maintaining close to full-spectrum capability while subject to severe and apparently insurmountable resource constraints. Studying how this is made possible may also provide valuable pointers for a U.S. defense force in an era of sequestration and budget cuts. This monograph presents research by Dr. Shima Keene, a defense analyst with extensive experience of working both with and within the UK s Reserve Forces. Dr. Keene identifies areas where the U.S. Army and other services can potentially benefit from examining the UK s comparable program of reserve reform. Equally important, she identifies key areas where aspects of this reform have been entirely counterproductive, and points to specific and expensive recent British mistakes which it is essential for the U.S. military to avoid. The Strategic Studies Institute considers that this monograph provides a useful view of prior experience in organizing and integrating reserve forces, and is a valuable addition to the debate on how to plan the future shape of the U.S. Army.