The Defense Department is kept from being proportional to its actual role by organizational inertia and its size. Use of force, and the abundance of manpower and materiel that enable it, are traditional strengths, but the military is unsustainable at its present cost. Without a reduction, the Nation is weakened economically, and overreliance on the military has a corresponding effect on both U.S. status and on domestic regard for the military even as fewer Americans than ever have served or understand what the military does. Relying on the inherent goodness of man is insufficient; the U.S. Armed Forces must remain the most capable, but leaders must assess what is needed and the long-term effects of military responses and adjust accordingly.

Modern U.S. military leaders tend to adapt the organization to their personal styles, using networking and information processing to tally up a succession of mission achievements over ten years of diverse combat. Yet it brings a top-down command and control (C2) style that Chairman Dempsey aims to reverse back to leaders adapting their preferences to both the mission and the situation at hand. The new Mission Command thrust calls on leaders to understand their organizations’ C2 approach, discern environmental and mission changes calling for a new paradigm, and correctly and promptly adopting a new C2 style. As Mission Command becomes an enduring and adaptable concept, doctrine, education, training, and operations will change with the new C2 throughout the joint force

Japan’s community-level training and investment in disaster preparedness have made it one of the world’s most resilient societies, yet both Tokyo and Washington when it stepped in to help were somewhat overmastered by the “triple disaster” of an earthquake, tsunami, and damaged nuclear power plant. Lessons learned highlight the difficulty and time sensitivity of complex emergencies as well as added layers of challenge when outside parties assist. Every disaster will have its own challenges, so collaborative planning and training as well as adaptability are essential. The experience in Japan can help embassies and governments discern their future needs. It also shows the need for agencies to understand each other’s capabilities at both the domestic and international levels