D. Robert Worley is a Fellow with the Johns Hopkins University Washington Center for the Study of American Government. He previously held adjunct faculty positions at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs and UCLA's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He has served as a defense policy analyst at the National Security and Army Research Divisions of Rand, the Joint Advanced Warfighting Program at the Institute for Defense Analyses, and the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies' Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities. Before beginning his professional career, he served in the United States Marine Corps with one tour in Vietnam.

• Tables and FiguresPrefaceAcknowledgmentsAcronymsIntroductionChapter 1. Directions for Transformation: Three ViewsChapter 2. A Short History of Defense ReformChapter 3. ArmyChapter 4. Air ForceChapter 5. NavyChapter 6. Marine CorpsChapter 7. Special Operations ForcesChapter 8. Joint CommandsChapter 9. Unified Action and the Nature of DisunityConclusionNotesIndex

This work is a valuable research tool, for the author skillfully summarizes a variety of efforts to reform and transform the US (and other) militaries. Worley is most useful at sketching the history of those efforts and their relative degrees of success over time, and on focusing attention on the variety of meanings of the term transformation. In a series of chapters on the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Special Forces operations, Worley gives insights into the nature of change, the internal culture of the various services, and their strengths and weaknesses in dealing with systemic change. Calling reform and transformation a journey, not a destination, he enables the careful reader to discern some internal impediments to both. Rightly assuming that great power conflict is not over, Worley is forced to conclude that in terms of meeting the new challenges, there has been precious little accomplished in the post-Cold War era and that our troops deserve better. The present situation in Iraq seems to cogently underscore this observation….Recommended. Researchers, faculty, and practitioners.