Military Review English Edition November-December 2015 | Page 104

More Qualified

4
2

Qualified but unwilling:
1,000,000 (25%)

Willing and
qualified:
160,000
(4%)
3

1

More Willing

Less Willing

Willing but
unqualified:
600,000
(15%)

Unwilling and unqualified:
2,240,000 (56%)

Less Qualified

1

Foster a culture of
service

3

Qualify the willing

2

Motivate the
qualified

4

Continue to attract the
qualified and willing

Figure 2. The Approach Applied to the Problem
under today’s standards. Currently, only 4.3 percent
of young people are both willing and qualified to serve
in the military, and that number is declining. To make
matters worse, this dynamic situation is trending in the
wrong direction for the AVF. Figure 1 illustrates the
long-term movement toward both decreased willingness
as well as decreased qualification to serve (figure 1, down
and left). As DOD’s demand for highly qualified, motivated young talent continues, competition for talent represented in figure 1’s upper right quadrant becomes even
more challenging. Long-term solutions must address the
trends in both quality and quantity, but any redesign of
the AVF must account for the deep tensions between the
military and social aspects of the problem. Failure to do
so threatens any future approach.

Expanding the Talent Pool of Willing
and Qualified: Four Lines of Effort
A redesigned AVF requires a holistic approach
aimed at long-term, systemic issues to ensure an
98

accessible talent pool of qualified and willing young
adults to serve in the military. Accomplishing this requires decisive change without violating the fundamental interests of two key AVF stakeholders: the military
and society. For example, the military will not sacrifice
the principle that uniformed recruits be sufficiently intelligent, physically sound and capable, and morally fit
for the demands of military life. Similarly, the approach
should not require society to forego preparing young
people for college or other high-value opportunities.
Figure 2 illustrates a holistic approach that would
use four lines of effort to engage each quadrant of the
problem diagram introduced in figure 1. This approach
would renew the AVF’s long-term viability and account
for military and societal factors—for each stakeholder’s
core interests.
First, at the policy level, the U.S. leadership must
begin cultivating a culture of voluntary national service
that includes as many young people as possible, regardless of willingness or qualification to serve.
November-December 2015  MILITARY REVIEW