In Bend But Do Not Break, a broad range of experts assess the long-term viability of the AVF. To do this, they address a host of challenges facing the AVF and, by extension, the politicized environment in which it operates. An informed and balanced look at the AVF, this book considers the future of the force and asks the wider question of whether it continues to serve the needs of national security or individuals in the military.
The American military's All-Volunteer Force (AVF) recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. At the time of the post-Vietnam War move to end American military conscription, it was unclear whether a force comprised solely of volunteers could effectively meet the nation's security needs. Yet over the past twenty years, the AVF has grown larger, more generously resourced, and more capable than it had ever previously been absent an active major conflict. In Bend But Do Not Break, a broad range of experts assess the long-term viability of the AVF. To do this, they address a host of challenges facing the AVF and, by extension, the politicized environment in which it operates. An informed and balanced look at the AVF, this book considers the future of the force and asks the wider question of whether it continues to serve the needs of national security or individuals in the military.
Foreword: AVF Debates and the Historical Significance of the Moment
-Eliot A. Cohen Introduction: An Inflection Point
-Jaron S. Wharton and Jason Dempsey
Chapter 1: The Civil-Military Gap and the
Future of Recruiting and Mobilization
-Marybeth Ulrich
Chapter 2: Population Demographics and Recruiting
Considerations from a Macro Perspective
-Dennis Laich
Chapter 3: Polarization, Politicization, and the Future of
Democratic Civil-Military Relations
-Ronald R. Krebs and Robert Ralston
Chapter 4: Can Our Military Be Political
Without Becoming Partisan?
-Bishop Garrison and Kori Schake
Chapter 5: Norm Deterioration in U.S.
Civil-Military Relations
-Risa A. Brooks and Heidi A. Urben
Chapter 6: The Future of the
"All-Volunteer Family"
-Miriam Krieger
Chapter 7: Money Matters: Modernizing the Military
Compensation System
-Brandon J. Archuleta
Chapter 8: Displaced not Replaced: People, Technology,
and the Future of the All-Volunteer Force
-Cole Livieratos
Chapter 9: Balancing Military Influence in National
Security
-Todd Schmidt and Ambassador David Miller
Chapter 10: Diminishing Legislative
Oversight: Congress and the AVF
-Danielle L. Lupton
Chapter 11: The Future Adventures of the All-Volunteer
Force
-Keith L. Carter, Max Z. Margulies, and Isaiah Wilson III
Chapter 12: The
Future of the Total Force: What Will It Mean to Be a Citizen-Soldier?
-Jessica D. Blankshain and Lindsay P. Cohn
Chapter 13 What Should We Owe Our
Veterans?
-Michael Meese Conclusion: Sustaining the All-Volunteer Force
-Carrie A. Lee Afterword: Trust in the Military and the Legitimacy of the
All-Volunteer Force
-Peter D. Feaver Bibliography
Index
Jaron S. Wharton is an infantry officer who commanded a brigade in the US Army. He previously served on the National Security Council staff as a deputy executive secretary and later as the chief of staff to the deputy national security advisor for strategy. He is a former White House Fellow, research Fellow at West Point's Modern War Institute (MWI), and military Fellow at both the Center for a New American Security and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Keith L. Carter is an Associate Professor in the United States Naval War College at the Naval Postgraduate School, where he serves as the Associate Dean. He is a Senior non-resident Fellow at the Cornell Tech Policy Institute and a Fellow at the United States Air Force Academy's Institute for Future Conflict. Before joining the Naval War College, he served for over twenty years as an infantry officer in the United States Army.
Katherine L. Kuzminski is the Director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security. She was previously a political scientist at the RAND Corporation where she led research teams examining officer personnel management, reserve component transition issues, senior officer selection and development, military culture, and ground force capability development.
Max Z. Margulies is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences and Chief Research Officer at the Modern War Institute at West Point. He is also a Security Fellow with the Truman National Security Project and a 2023 Non-Resident Fellow with the Institute for Global Affairs. From 2018 - 2020, he served as Executive Director of the Rupert H. Johnson Grand Strategy Program at West Point.
Jason K. Dempsey is the Executive Director of the Center for Veteran Transition and Integration at Columbia University. He has written on the failure of our counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan. He is the author of Our Army: Soldiers, Politics and Civil-Military Relations, a former White House Fellow, and an adjunct Senior Fellow at CNAS. He served for over twenty years as an infantry officer in the Army.
Carrie A. Lee is a Senior Fellow with the Security and Democracy Initiative at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and a visiting scholar with the University of Pennsylvania. From 2021-2025, she was chair of the Department of National Security and Strategy at the United States Army War College. She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, contributing editor with War on the Rocks, regular columnist for World Politics review, and a Fellow with the Truman National Security Project.
