The military pension promise : autonomous policy subsystems, blue ribbon defense commissions, and the twenty-first century all-volunteer force [article]

Brandon Jason Archuleta
2015
who guided this project from start to finish. This dissertation has its roots in seminar papers at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Ed Dorn, a former Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, encouraged my interests in twenty-first century talent management. Similarly, Jeremi Surian intellectual force of naturesupported my developing research agenda and first suggested that I examine postwar pension policies to illustrate their development over time, eventually leading to my three
more » ... history chapters. In the Government Department, I immersed myself in the study of the policy process and political institutions in seminars with my advisor and mentor, Bryan Jones, and the congressional scholar and partisan warrior, Sean Theriault. They introduced me to and nurtured (read: tolerated) my interest in policy subsystems, thus giving me the impetus for a subsystems approach to this dissertation project. I was fortunate to have Bruce Buchanan and Bat Sparrow round out my committee. Bruce's personal warmth and affable style make him a pleasure to work with. Likewise, Bat's collegial nature, incisive questions, and interest and expertise in American political development pushed my project to new limits. I am lucky to count these six gentlemen as colleagues and friends. Beyond the dissertation committee, I am particularly indebted to Sam Workman. Sam fought hard to have me admitted to the Ph.D. program and later took time out of his busy schedule to facilitate an informal conference course that I appropriately titled, "Beer vi and Bureaucracy." Next, I would be remiss if I did not also thank Eric McDaniel, Rob Moser, and Dan Brinks, all of whom believed in me and took a risk by supporting my application to the Government Department. I was also blessed to have strong support from senior colleagues in the
doi:10.15781/t2w01h fatcat:32mlr4hymbfoda5hoo73kyeice