Bend But Do Not Break: Shaping the Future of the All-Volunteer Force

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.

Jaron S. Wharton is an active-duty infantry officer and a current brigade commander in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. 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 (CNAS) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Keith L. Carter is an Associate Professor in the United States Naval War College at the Naval Postgraduate School and a Senior non-resident Fellow at the Cornell Tech Policy Institute. He served for over twenty years in the Army, where he last served as an Assistant Professor and Director of the United States Military Academy’s (USMA) Defense and Strategic Studies Program.

Katherine L. Kuzminski is the Deputy Director of Studies and Director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Before CNAS, she was 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 Dempsey is the Executive Director of the Center for Veteran Transition and Integration at Columbia University. He has written on Army efforts toward gender integration, the experiences of Hispanics in the military, and 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 an Associate Professor at the US Army War College, where she serves as the chair of the Department of National Security and Strategy and director of the Civil-Military Relations Center. She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, contributing editor for War on the Rocks, and a fellow with the Center for a New American Security and the Truman National Security Project. She has previously held academic positions at the US Air War College, Notre Dame International Security Center, and the RAND Corporation.