Goldwater nichols, the roles and chairmans of the joint chiefs of staff, and the commanders. This morning, we seek to understand how Goldwater Nichols has impacted the effectiveness of u. S. Military operations, and what reforms may be necessary. We are pleased to welcome our distinguished panel of witnesses, who will offer insights from their many years of experience and distinguished service. General norton schwartz, president and ceo of Business Executives for National Security. Admiral james, former european commander and u. S. Southern command or. Currently the dean of the Fletcher School of law and diplomacy at tufts university, and frequent appearances on various media outlets. Dr. Christopher lamb, director of the institute and the National Defense university. More than anything else, the Goldwater Nichols act was the result of escalating concern in the congress and the country by the effectiveness of u. S. Military operations in the vietnam war, the failure of the hostages in
Functional teams to achieve efficiencies and provide senior civilian and military leaders more timely recommendations. In previous hearings, our witnesses have observed better capitalizing on the gains achieved through those improvements may require significant changes to enter Agency National security structure and processes, as well as this was made by jim walker, the godfather, if you will, of the Goldwater Nichols. No matter how you transform the defense department, it is quite broken. And the problems that confront this nation require an interagency response. Being able to executed a National Security mission by itself is long going, we do not have the ability to integrate everything that exists. I think it is important to keep that in mind. And the chairman, again, let me commend him for beginning this process with the department of defense. I hope it is a catalyst on the issue for serious review by other committees and other agencies about how, together, we can improve security
Say what hes told me and general dunford, certainly for the military campaign, which is that he wants us to continue to come to him with proposals for ways that we can strengthen the campaign consistent with our overall strategic approach. Sec. Fallon thank you. The United States has been leading the Coalition Since last year against isildaesh. And we are now fully part of that by our extending our operations to syria as well as iraq. Secretary carter has asked other countries, including the United Kingdom, what more they can contribute to the campaign as we move to this new focus on degrading the infrastructure that supports isildaesh. And we will be responding to his letter in due course. So far as russian involvement is concerned, we have said from the beginning, if russia wants to help in syria, where it has influence, it ought to stop propping up the assad regime, help us bring this civil war to an end, stop bombing the opposition groups that have been opposed to assad and start t