Defence Organisation — The Future

Abstract

Before examining possible directions of change in defence organisation, it is useful to emphasise a fundamental difference that exists between defence and any other organisation. It is that, in the ultimate, defence organisation requires that men should fight; that men can be ordered to risk, and indeed to lose, their lives without the option of lawful refusal. It is this characteristic that sets the services a little apart from the society of which they are a part. It is a characteristic which makes a career in the Services not ‘just another job’. It is this characteristic, so it is argued, that demands an unbroken chain of single service command from the lowest to the highest level in order that those who lead should have the necessary legal and moral authority to give such orders, and should maintain the confidence and trust of those to whom the orders are given.