Quadrennial Buzzword Review

Just looked over the "Reshaping the Defense Enterprise" section of the Quadrennial Defense Review, which the Pentagon unveiled today. It reads, frankly, like an effort to see how many corporate buzzwords they could cram into a single document. An excerpt:

Most importantly, the Department has made

notable progress toward an outcome-oriented,

capabilities-based planning approach that

provides the joint warfighter with the capabilities

needed to address a wider range of asymmetric

challenges.

Recent operational experiences have

demonstrated the need to bring further agility,

flexibility and horizontal integration to the

defense support infrastructure. The Department

has responded to that need with several

innovations in its organizations and support

services.

I was especially taken with the three words the document uses to characterize Defense officials' responsibilities. The department's senior leaders, the report notes, are concerned with "governance." At the next level down, leaders of components act in a "management" role. And what's the term for what everybody else in the sprawling military establishment does? "Work." It's nice that they make a clear distinction between this and what happens at the higher levels.