Published: 1 September 2008
Air & Space Power
Journal - Fall 2008
Policy Analysis in National Security Affairs: New Methods for a New Era
by Richard L. Kugler. National Defense University Press (http://www.ndu.edu/inss/press/nduphp.html),
300 Fifth Avenue, Building 62, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, DC 20319-5066,
2006, 658 pages, $55.00 (softcover).
Drawing on his more than 30 years of working in the national security field,
Department of Defense, RAND, and academia, Richard L. Kugler has written a
comprehensive book that fills the gap in professional literature regarding the
conduct of post–Cold War policy analysis in national security affairs. “The
business of forging national security policy has two main components: first,
determining how the U.S. should use its powers abroad to pursue its goals, and
second, determining how the U.S. should spend money in order to build its
military, posture, defense strategy, and related assets” (p. 5). His overarching
thesis calls for the use of new methods in adapting to the increasingly complex
global landscape—methodologies that help the US government make the wisest and
most effective national security decisions possible: “The days are gone in which
foreign policy, defense strategy, military forces, technologies, and budgets
could be treated as separate domains” (p. 5). As such, Policy Analysis in
National Security Affairs is a forward-leaning, multidisciplinary book.
Within three categories of methods for national security analysis—strategic evaluation, systems analysis, and operations research—the book’s chapters cover the application of analytical methods to both foreign policy and defense strategy, as well as to specifics of plans, programs, and budgets. A practitioner’s book, written primarily for members of the younger post–Cold War generation, Policy Analysis in National Security Affairs seeks to help them choose the most appropriate analytical methods that lead to the best possible decisions and outcomes in supporting US interests.
Chapter by chapter, Kugler effectively simplifies diverse, contemporary decisions faced by the US government in formulating policy—some enduring, some unique. These include evaluating strategies for multiple goals, forging national security strategy, promoting economic progress and democracy, developing methods of systems analysis, sizing conventional forces, modernizing affordably, devising methods of operations research, designing nuclear forces and missile defense, and carrying out expeditionary wars, to name just a few. The author then presents appropriate methodologies for assessing these decisions in an understandable manner, even those that normally have exceedingly complex formulas and decision matrices.
Although Kugler has written Policy Analysis in National Security Affairs for
a professional audience, he has taken pains to make the contents, presentation,
and style accessible to graduate and undergraduate students as well as anybody
who wants to learn about policy analysis. A particularly appealing feature of
this massive work is that one can read the chapters independently of each other
yet still draw meaningful lessons and real-world application tools from it. I
recommend placing this insightful, go-to reference source on the shelves of
military college faculty, their respective college libraries,
middle-/senior-grade military officers, and comparable employees/staffs/agencies
of the federal government working within (or linked to) the beltway in
Washington, DC.
Dr. David A. Anderson, Lieutenant Colonel, USMC, Retired
US Army Command and General Staff College
Policy Analysis in National Security Affairs: New Methods for a New Era by
Richard L. Kugler. National Defense University Press (http://www.ndu.edu/inss/press/nduphp.html),
300 Fifth Avenue, Building 62, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, DC 20319-5066,
2006, 658 pages, $55.00 (softcover).
Drawing on his more than 30 years of working in the national security field,
Department of Defense, RAND, and academia, Richard L. Kugler has written a
comprehensive book that fills the gap in professional literature regarding the
conduct of post–Cold War policy analysis in national security affairs. “The
business of forging national security policy has two main components: first,
determining how the U.S. should use its powers abroad to pursue its goals, and
second, determining how the U.S. should spend money in order to build its
military, posture, defense strategy, and related assets” (p. 5). His overarching
thesis calls for the use of new methods in adapting to the increasingly complex
global landscape—methodologies that help the US government make the wisest and
most effective national security decisions possible: “The days are gone in which
foreign policy, defense strategy, military forces, technologies, and budgets
could be treated as separate domains” (p. 5). As such, Policy Analysis in
National Security Affairs is a forward-leaning, multidisciplinary book.
Within three categories of methods for national security analysis—strategic evaluation, systems analysis, and operations research—the book’s chapters cover the application of analytical methods to both foreign policy and defense strategy, as well as to specifics of plans, programs, and budgets. A practitioner’s book, written primarily for members of the younger post–Cold War generation, Policy Analysis in National Security Affairs seeks to help them choose the most appropriate analytical methods that lead to the best possible decisions and outcomes in supporting US interests.
Chapter by chapter, Kugler effectively simplifies diverse, contemporary decisions faced by the US government in formulating policy—some enduring, some unique. These include evaluating strategies for multiple goals, forging national security strategy, promoting economic progress and democracy, developing methods of systems analysis, sizing conventional forces, modernizing affordably, devising methods of operations research, designing nuclear forces and missile defense, and carrying out expeditionary wars, to name just a few. The author then presents appropriate methodologies for assessing these decisions in an understandable manner, even those that normally have exceedingly complex formulas and decision matrices.
Although Kugler has written Policy Analysis in National Security Affairs for a professional audience, he has taken pains to make the contents, presentation, and style accessible to graduate and undergraduate students as well as anybody who wants to learn about policy analysis. A particularly appealing feature of this massive work is that one can read the chapters independently of each other yet still draw meaningful lessons and real-world application tools from it. I recommend placing this insightful, go-to reference source on the shelves of military college faculty, their respective college libraries, middle-/senior-grade military officers, and comparable employees/staffs/agencies of the federal government working within (or linked to) the beltway in Washington, DC.
Dr. David A. Anderson, Lieutenant Colonel, USMC, Retired
US Army Command and General Staff College
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