A Citizen Army as a Social and Public Policy: How the U.S. Constitution May Hold Some Answers to our National Defense
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Creator
Derouin, Pete
Advisor
Ridder, Anne
McCabe, Douglas
Abstract
The defense budget of the United States faces some serious problems. Defense is expensive, but our nation is in debt and running unsustainably high annual deficits. A costly, large standing Army contributes to this mounting debt. The Founding Fathers feared a large standing army not only for its cost but because it could present a threat to the people's liberties, while possibly making foreign wars more likely.
For most of its first 127 years, the United States therefore relied for its security needs upon a small standing army reinforced when need be by volunteer state militia forces activated for national service. A draft was enacted during the Civil War, before the World Wars and then again during the Cold War. Even after the return to an all-volunteer force late in the Vietnam War, the American Army remained larger than its traditionally small size.
This thesis argues for returning to the vision of the Founding Fathers by relying more heavily upon the organized militia, embodied since 1903 in the National Guard, to provide for defense, thus ensuring liberty while strengthening national security at lower cost.
Description
M.A.L.S.
Permanent Link
http://hdl.handle.net/10822/760894Date Published
2015Subject
Type
Publisher
Georgetown University
Extent
122 leaves
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