scholarly journals The Unified Combatant Command System: Centerpiece of the 1986 U.S. Armed Forces Reforms

2022 ◽  
Vol 2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ufot B. Inamete

This article highlights the pivotal nature of the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 regarding reforms made in the armed forces of the United States. The unified combatant command system is often seen as the centerpiece of these reforms. The goal of this study is to examine whether the unified combatant command system, which consists of 11 Joint combatant commands within the U.S. Department of Defense, indeed constitutes the centerpiece of these reforms. To fully answer this research question, the study presented here first examines the modern reforms of the U.S. armed forces to provide a solid foundation for subsequent research. It will be concluded that Goldwater-Nichols was the reform most directly relevant to this study. The majority of the article is then devoted to an examination of the 11 combatant commands, identifying how each contributes to the achievement of the goals laid out by Goldwater-Nichols. The author concludes that these 11 unified combatant commands constitute the centerpiece of, and provide the most essential toolset for, the achievement of Goldwater-Nichols.

Design Issues ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-42
Author(s):  
Pedro Ignacio Alonso ◽  
Hugo Palmarola

In 1957 as part of the Minitrack Network, the U.S. Army installed a satellite-tracking station in Peldehue, Chile, intended to track radio signals from what was then the United States’ Vanguard project. With the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958, the station came under its new administration, becoming the subject of a process of rebranding that included the monumental installation of the agency insignia, a rounded slab made in concrete and tiles. By examining this object from a design and archaeological perspective - as it nowadays lays abandoned nearby its original location - this paper attempts to advance our understanding of the Chilean station in terms of its place within a much larger global network by analyzing it within the intersection of design, military economies, technologies, ideologies, and cultural and geospatial considerations.


Refuge ◽  
2002 ◽  
pp. 13-20
Author(s):  
Andrew Morton ◽  
Wendy A. Young

This article outlines U.S. policy toward children asylum seekers. It highlights the gaps in U.S. detention and asylum policy which jeopardize the protection of children. It also discusses advances made in recent years, such as issuance of the U.S. “Guidelines for Children’s Asylum Claims” which establish evidentiary, procedural, and legal standards for asylum adjudicators dealing with children’s claims. Finally, it suggests reforms that are necessary to bring the United States into compliance with international law and to ensure that children are provided the refuge they deserve.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 440-455
Author(s):  
Corina Todoran ◽  
Claudette Peterson

In the wake of the U.S. government’s executive orders restricting travel from six Muslim-majority countries (Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen) in January 2017, we collected data from four focus groups consisting of international doctoral students aiming to provide insight on the following research question: How do international doctoral students make sense of the U.S. political climate on their lived experiences? This article contributes to the literature by discussing a timely issue concerning international students in the United States and points out that the 2017 travel ban has affected not only international doctoral students from those banned countries but has also alarmed students from other countries, who described the climate as stressful, confusing, and hostile. Several students changed their travel plans for conferences or family visits being worried that they might not be able to reenter the United States. Other students feared the immigration rules might suddenly change and affect their visa status. Students also expressed their concerns in regard to job prospects after graduation. This article derives from a larger qualitative study exploring the experiences of international doctoral students in the U.S. academic and cultural settings.


2019 ◽  
Vol 184 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 889-893 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer F Gregory ◽  
Elizabeth A Taylor ◽  
Yizhen E Liu ◽  
Tracy V Love ◽  
Sorana Raiciulescu ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction Skin diseases have had a significant impact on the health of deployed military service members throughout history. Given the high prevalence historically of cutaneous disease among United States deployed servicemembers, we review the burden of skin disease on the modern military by analyzing the most common dermatologic diagnoses made in deployed settings from 2008 to 2015. Furthermore, we compare the most common dermatologic diagnoses made in the deployed setting with those made by dermatologists and nondermatologists in the civilian healthcare system to highlight the differences between the civilian and deployed military practice environment. Methods This study queried the Theater Medical Data Store for International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes to determine the total number of dermatologic encounters as part of all medical encounters from 2008 to 2015 in a deployed setting. These data were provided by the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch. For all statistical tests, analyses were conducted using R statistical software, with type I error controlled at 5%. Results From 2008 to 2015, 92 dermatology-specific ICD-9 codes accounted for 429,837 dermatologic diagnoses that were made in a deployed setting, equating to 10% of all diagnoses. The top 20 dermatologic diagnoses were identified, and the percentage of total medical diagnoses (TMD) was calculated. Once the individual diagnoses were categorized, a direct comparison was made between the top 20 most prevalent disease categories among deployed military servicemembers and those of the United States (US) population as a whole, based on claims. The most prevalent diagnoses were compared amongst four different settings: Deployed military, military teledermatology, civilian dermatologists, and civilian nondermatologists. Overall comparison of the prevalence between each of these groups showed an association between setting and diagnosis prevalence. Conclusions The total burden of disease based on diagnostic codes from 2008 to 2015 is 429,837 diagnoses. This accounts for 10% of TMD from 2008 to 2015 in the deployed setting. Diagnoses most prevalent in the deployed military setting had more in common with those made by civilian nondermatologists compared with military teledermatology and civilian dermatologists. At 10% of diagnoses made in the deployed military setting in this timeframe, skin disease accounts for a substantial burden on deployed servicemembers. Deployed servicemembers with skin disease should be supported through use of teledermatology resources and improved dermatology education for primary care and deployed medical personnel.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 104-133
Author(s):  
Evanthis Hatzivassiliou

After war broke out between Arab countries and Israel in October 1973, the U.S. government asked its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to do the unthinkable: establish an agreed position on an ongoing “out-of-area” crisis. Then, on 25 October, the United States unilaterally raised the alert level of its armed forces to DEFCON III, affecting the NATO area without consulting any allies. These actions constituted a radical departure from established NATO practice and angered the Europeans. U.S. officials, for their part, were upset at what they saw as a dismal European failure to support U.S. objectives in the Middle East crisis. In subsequent months, NATO frantically searched for ways to improve consultation, especially on out-of-area issues. The outcome in 1974 was the promulgation of the Atlantic Declaration, along with a series of functional reforms in alliance consultation procedures. The crisis forced NATO to adjust to the new trends of globalization that were rapidly becoming evident.


Author(s):  
I. V. Maksymenko ◽  
V. V. Matuyzo

The arms control regime consists of several documents, and the United States of America and the Russian Federation as the State-Parties ensured the implementation and effectiveness of them mostly. However, the growing conflict between these States due to Russia's numerous violations of international law and obligations under international agreements has also harmed arms control. The withdrawal of both states from strategically important documents, which were tools for maintaining transparency and mutual control, is a result of the decline in trust and the lack of a constructive dialogue between Washington and Moscow. The Open Skies Treaty is one of these documents. The article examines the United States' reasons for the withdrawal from the Treaty and reveals the consequences of such a decision by the administration of President Trump. It is noted that the agreement, the idea of ​​which belonged to the United States, was signed immediately after the end of the Cold War and was to help build trust and openness in the new environment. It is noted that the Treaty ensures international stability through the ability of each party to openly collect information on the armed forces, activities, and operations of another party through coordinated flights of reconnaissance aircraft over the territory of the member states. However, problems are gradually accumulating due to Russia's actions to restrict flight zones in violation of the provisions of the Open Sky Treaty, which has become especially acute since 2014. That made the United States think about the meaning of participating in an agreement where one of the parties violates its provisions. The authors outline the consequences of the U.S. decision to leave the agreement; in particular, the focus is on the reactions of the U.S. European partners and Ukraine. They also examined applications and countermeasures by Russia that has also announced its withdrawal from the agreement. Reflecting on the prospects for international security and arms control, the preconditions for the potential return of the United States and Russia to the Open Sky Treaty are outlined.


2020 ◽  
pp. 152692482097859
Author(s):  
Juan Carlos Caicedo ◽  
Samuel Carbunaru ◽  
Joseph Tyler Brooks ◽  
Christopher Chiodo Ortiz ◽  
Alejandro Chiodo Ortiz ◽  
...  

Introduction: Minority patients constitute the majority of the kidney transplant waiting list, yet they suffer greater difficulties in listing and longer wait times to transplantation. There is a lack of information regarding targeted efforts by transplant centers to improve transplant care for minority populations. Research Question: Our aim was to analyze all kidney transplant websites in the United States to identify changes over a 5-year period in the number of multilingual websites, reported culturally targeted initiatives, and center and provider diversity. Design: Surveys were developed to analyze center websites of all transplant programs in the United States. Those with incomplete information about their nephrology or surgical teams were excluded, resulting in 174 (73%) sites in 2013 and 185 (76%) in 2018. Results: Few websites were available in a language other than English, 6.3% in 2013 and 9.7% in 2018 (P = 0.24). Only 3 websites (1.3%) in 2013 and 7 (3.7%) in 2018 reported any evidence of a culturally targeted initiative (P = 0.23). In 2018, 35% of centers employed a Hispanic transplant physician, 77% had a transplant physician who spoke a language other than English, and 39% had a transplant physician who spoke Spanish. Discussion: Although minority patients are expected to grow in the United States, decreased access to transplantation continues to vex the transplant community. Very little progress has been made in the development of multilingual websites and culturally targeted initiatives.


2020 ◽  
pp. 159-184
Author(s):  
Colleen Woods

This chapter assesses the formation of a private paramilitary organization in the 1950s by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents who were associated with Edward Lansdale, as well as by a group of veterans from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). This “Freedom Company” was meant to transport the “lessons of the Huk campaign” to sites elsewhere in Asia and Latin America. As an organizing principle, the Freedom Company and its U.S.-based supporters assumed that U.S. colonialism had imparted “modern political knowledge” to Filipinos; as the most “politically modern” Asians, therefore, they were best equipped to “export democracy” throughout the region. The Freedom Company Philippines (FCP), staffed entirely by Filipinos in an effort to distance contemporary U.S. interventions from a history of Western imperialism, actively promoted the idea that the U.S. colonial project in the Philippines had succeeded, while European imperial practices had failed to develop Asian societies properly. Though steeped in racialized perceptions regarding the political capacities of colonized or formerly colonized peoples, anticommunists contended that U.S. colonialism in the Philippines and contemporary U.S. interventions demonstrated the United States' interests in liberating Asians from colonialism across the region.


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