National Defense Decision-Making : Prospects and New Directions

국방의사결정 : 전망과 대비방향

In light of the recent developments of transitory nature, it is likely that national defense decision-making will be more difficult to make for years to come. In other words, sudden changes in security environment would call into question the basic assumptions on which we have built our national defense planning and increase the number of the uncertain factors in the decision-making process; the subdivision and ramification of national defense management would increase the factors for decision-making and complicate even further the mutual interactions among these factors; the accelerated pace of sophistication and diversification of weapon systems and military technology would increase the risk of failure and system costs geometrically; and the reduced level of acceptance among the people on the sanctification of national defense in proportion to the rapid progress toward a more democratic and industrial society would engender an increased criticism or checking role by the National Assembly or by the mass media. As the changes in national defense environment and conditions create an innumerable number of new tasks, this paper intends to suggest a few core policy measures to improve the quality of national defense decision-making. More specifically, it proposes to 1) eradicate entirely the bureaucratic behavior and tendencies; 2) utilize actively the brain staff for quality assurance of decision-making; 3) and introduce and apply as a whole set, a total system, or an incorporated pack age the PPBEES(Planning-Programming-Budgeting-Executing-Evaluating-System)/LCMM (Life-Cycle Management Model for System Acquision), the OR/SA(Operations Research/Systems Analysis), and DMIS (Defense Management Information System).