Slide Presentations

Briefing for the Woodrow Wilson Center
Douglas A. Macgregor, 21 June 2001
PowerPoint Presentation - 0.6 MB
(free PowerPoint Viewer)

Briefing for the Transformation Task Force of the Rumsfeld/Marshall Review
Douglas A. Macgregor, 13 March 2001, (.pdf file).

Briefing for the Raytheon Corporation
Douglas A. Macgregor, 19 February 2001
PowerPoint Presentation - 3.8 MB
(free PowerPoint Viewer)

The following slide presentations can be viewed one slide at a time in HTML format or can be downloaded as a complete set in PowerPoint format (.ppt files.) To view the .ppt file you will need to have the free PowerPoint Viewer available for Windows (2.8 MB) and for Macintosh (0.6 MB).

1. Transforming the U.S. Army: Why and How
(HTML Version) (PowerPoint Version)

2. Types and Organization of Basic Combat units
HTML Version) (PowerPoint Version)

3. Force Structure; Readiness and Personnel Issues; Joint Operational Architecture; Command and Control
(HTML Version) (PowerPoint Version)

4. Illustrative Force Packages for Theater War and Smaller Contingencies; Cooperation with Allies; Summary Points
(HTML Version) (PowerPoint Version)

5. Special Topics: Light Reconnaissance Strike Group (LRSG) -- the U.S. Army's RMA Vanguard Force (includes comparison of LRSG with prototypical "medium-weight" brigade)
(HTML Version) (PowerPoint Version)

The 1997 publication of Breaking the Phalanx: A New Design for Landpower in the Twenty-First Century (Westport: Praeger, 1997) by Col. Douglas A. Macgregor was an unscheduled intervention in the US Army's troubled process of adapting to post-Cold War conditions. Col. Macgregor offered the vision of a modular Army comprising various types of basic combined-arms units that would be much smaller than today's divisions, but larger and more capable than today's brigades. Information units at all levels would help tie together these basic "building blocks" into larger, mission-tailored task forces. The information units also would facilitate the close cooperation of US Army forces with those of other services and other nations. Thus, this is a vision of an Army that is not only rapidly-adaptable and rapidly-deployable, but also "joint" and "combined" from the bottom up.

Macgregor has made a compelling case that a revolution in military affairs involves much more than technological advancement:  it also requires change in organizational structures, operational concepts, and leadership principles. Macgregor's vision helps clarifies the difference between a revolution and a shopping spree:  his new Army would cost less than the current model and be able to deploy combat power much quicker.

Colonel Macgregor's work has won accolades from both inside the Army and out. But his efforts are also a testament to the difficulty of institutionalizing a revolution in thinking (or anything else). The types of change he has proposed remain on the margin of the Army's efforts to reinvent itself. These Army efforts mostly have involved technological adjustment -- be it the digitization of divisions or the adoption of lighter wheeled combat vehicles. The Army's "medium weight initiative" differs substantially from Macgregor's ideas; it retains, for instance, the traditional division-brigade structure. Nonetheless, it does signal, in the aftermath of the Kosovo conflict, a broader and deeper recognition that the Army must change if it is to remain strategically relevant.

In this context, the Project on Defense Alternatives offers this page with a variety of articles and slide presentations summarizing Col. Macgregor's ideas. As the nation turns to consider once again what type of Army it needs for the 21st century, these presentations can serve as both an inspiration and touchstone.

Douglas A. Macgregor -- Bibliography and Military Career
by Douglas A. Jones, 6 March 2002 (.pdf file).

E-mail This Page

Publications

 Breaking the Phalanx
by Douglas A. MacGregor.
Summary and Review

Some Reviews of Breaking the Phalanx:
Maj Kevin J. Cole, USAF
Lt Col William T. Eliason, USAF

A Test Case for Bush's Military Reform Pledge?
Thomas E. Ricks. Washington Post, 20 February 2002.

Resurrecting Transformation: A New Structure for Post-Industrial Warfare
by Douglas A. Macgregor, Defense Horizons, September 2001, (.pdf file).

The Joint Force: A Decade, No Progress
by Douglas A. Macgregor, Joint Force Quarterly, Winter 2000/2001, (.pdf file).

Should the U.S. Army "Lighten Up"?
Panel discussion with Douglas A. Macgregor, Thomas McNaugher, Sean Naylor, Kim Burger, and David McGinnis. Washington DC: Cato Institute, 18 December 2000, (Real video and transcript available).

Transformation and the Illusion of Change
by Douglas A. Macgregor, National Security Studies Quarterly, Autumn 2000, (.pdf file).

Transforming Operational Architecture for the Information Age
by Douglas A. Macgregor, from a presentation to the Israeli Defense Force and the Jaffe Center, Martial Ecologies, 2000, (.pdf file).

Command and Control for Joint Strategic Actions
by Douglas A. Macgregor, Joint Force Quarterly, Autumn/Winter 1998-99, (.pdf file).

also of interest on the topic:

The Failure of Reform in an Era of Change
from "The Paradoxes of post-Cold War US Defense Policy", PDA Briefing Memo #18, 5 February 2001.

Wheels or Tracks? On the "Lightness" of Military Expeditions
by Lutz Unterseher, PDA Briefing Memo #16, July 2000. Can the US Army hope to achieve its vision of a "full-spectrum" ground force riding entirely on wheeled vehicles?