March 16, 2020
How the US military's coronavirus response may screw over the reserves
The endless pursuit of lethality combined with perverse incentives for commanders means the U.S. military’s reserve component risks being left in the lurch by the government’s broad response to COVID-19.
On its face, the Defense Department appears to have gone all in on preventing the spread of the virus, initially issuing a flexible guidance that included travel restrictions for service members to Level 3 locations and a five-step action plan to prevent transmission. On Friday, after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency, the DoD issued new travel restrictions banning domestic travel for DoD military and civilian personnel and their families save for cases where travel is considered “mission-essential.”
However, decision-making for the RC has been delayed, inconsistent, and largely absent. Some units have performed admirably, utilizing proactive decision-making and outside-the-box thinking to find ways to mitigate health risk while still accomplishing parts of their mission. Unfortunately, others have left their soldiers in the dark with subpar communication, a rigid adherence to pre-planned events, and over-application of “mission essential” tasks.
Read the full article in Task & Purpose.
More from CNAS
-
Atomic Strait: How China’s Nuclear Buildup Shapes Security Dynamics with Taiwan and the United States
Reports
Executive Summary This report examines the intersection of China’s nuclear modernization and cross-Strait tensions, especially how they might play out during a crisis, conting...
By Jacob Stokes
-
Opportunities and Challenges for Trade Policy in the Digital Economy
Congressional Testimony
This hearing addresses digital trade, and I will focus my testimony on the national-security problems in this area posed by China – specifically, concerns about China’s open a...
By David Feith
-
Taking on China and Russia
Commentary
Today Washington has chosen, perhaps by default, to compete with—and if necessary, confront—both Russia and China simultaneously and indefinitely....
By Richard Fontaine
-
Crafting Transatlantic Responses to BRI, with Lisa Curtis, Jacob Stokes, Josh Fitt, Carisa Nietsche, and Nicholas Lokker
Podcast
Nine years after the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s flagship global infrastructure investment program is at a critical juncture. While many countries were ini...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Jim Townsend, Lisa Curtis, Carisa Nietsche, Joshua Fitt & Nicholas Lokker
