Defense Manpower Planning discusses the important set of national security issues related to defense manpower for the 1980s. The topics in the text focus on the problems of manpower acquisition and retention. The historical background and description of the military power during the 1970s and 1980s are given in detail. A military manpower chronology is provided. The book enumerates some of the manpower issues and debates. Such salient issues as the quantity, quality, socio-economic factors, and the issue of cost, combat effectiveness, and readiness factors are carefully considered. After listing the issues, solutions are then presented. The variants of the all-volunteer force, of conscription, and combining volunteers and conscripts are suggested. A part of the book focuses on active duty forces. The issue of employing women in the military is fully addressed. A description of combat is also tackled. A section of the text explains the relationship between precision guided munitions and the volunteer force. The book will provide useful information to defense military planners, historians, and students of history.

Current NATO military strategy is based on the policy of flexible response that U.S. and European politicians endorsed in 1967; for over 15 years, no fundamental changes in NATO's defense strategy have occurred. If NATO cannot stop a Warsaw Pact aggression conventionally, it continues to threaten a gradual and controlled nuclear escalation of both theater and strategic nuclear weapons. Many analysts now question the fundamental principles underlying NATO's policy and strategy, given the enormous changes that have occurred in the strategic environment between 1967 and 1984. The contributors to this book examine the recent proposal by Samuel Huntington, who advocates that NATO adopt a conventional counter-retaliatory strategy based on offensive military actions deep into Eastern Europe. In evaluating this new proposal, the authors analyze the potential impact that it would have on U.S. and NATO military doctrine, assess probable European and Soviet reactions to NATO adopting a conventional counter-retaliatory strategy, and address the linkages existing between conventional and nuclear strategy. In the final chapter, the editors consider the policy, strategy, and force structure questions raised in the book and recommend policy options for the United States.

This mildly critical overview of U.S. military capabilities and future defense needs is presented here with competence and balance. It is probably useful for the general audience for which it is apparently intended. Those more steeped in defense issues will find little that is new in detail or analysis. - Robert E. Osgood, foreignaffairs.com