CNAS Releases New Report “Generations of War: The Rise of the Warrior Caste and the All-Volunteer Force”a

The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) Military, Veterans, and Society Program today released a new report examining the increasingly small subset of the U.S. population serving in the military and their isolation from the general population. In the report “Generations of War: The Rise of the Warrior Caste and the All-Volunteer Force,” CNAS Research Associate Amy Schafer writes that the trend of military service being passed from generation to generation has created a warrior caste in which a small section of the population bears the burden of America’s wars. The report examines the risks and benefits associated with a warrior caste, but advocates against returning to conscription. Its recommendations include:

• Expanding the exposure and footprint of military recruiters and partnering with other service organizations – like Americorps and Teach for America – to attract recruits beyond the military’s traditional recruiting pool.
• Increasing military engagement with the general population, particularly by leveraging the Reserve component’s connectivity to communities.
• Increasing the publicly-available data on the warrior caste phenomenon.

Read the full article at Small Wars Journal.