Joint Doctrine: Are We There Yet

The Joint Staff develops joint doctrine to improve the U.S. military's capability and build a joint warfighting culture. Unfortunately after twenty years joint doctrine is not completely ingrained into our culture because doctrine constantly changes. This paper identifies major factors driving doctrinal change and performs analysis to quantify the last two decades of change to identify future joint doctrine trends. The analysis showed the total number of joint publications and the number of changes per year remained relatively constant after 1997. Based on this stabilized trend, the military can expect 20 percent of joint publications to change each year in the future. Using an organizational change model, the paper describes what specific improvements the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Joint Staff, and Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) could make to facilitate the adoption of constantly changing joint warfighting doctrine into the U.S. military's culture. The recommendations include identifying champions for major publication changes, creating opportunities to talk about and market the changes, as well as visibly rewarding organizations that quickly and successfully implement new joint doctrine. These recommendations will accelerate adoption of joint warfighting doctrine into the U.S. military's culture.