Greening of the U.S. Military: Environmental Policy, National Security, and Organizational Change / Edition 2

by Robert F. Durant

Overview

Durant explores the epic and ongoing struggle in the post-Cold War period to build a corporate sense of responsibility within the U.S. military for ensuring that its day-to-day operations promote national security without compromising public health, safety, and the environment. As the Cold War drew to a close in the George H.W. Bush administration, U.S. military bases harbored nearly 20,000 toxic waste sites, covering nearly 27 million acres of contaminated property. Then-Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney launched an initiative to incorporate good environmental actions into the daily business of defense. Durant's chronicle of the struggle between the military and environmental proponents--which drew in members of Congress, the presidency, state governments, environmental interest groups, and affected citizens--reveals how difficult instilling a resistant military with a green ethic has proved to be.
Durant analyzes the dynamics of the efforts to hold the military accountable to environmental and natural resources laws in such matters as base cleanups, pollution prevention, natural resources management, and chemical weapons demilitarization. He scrutinizes the patterns of politics and strategies used by the key players and develops a framework for studying large-scale organizational change in the public sector. This rich story draws implications for intergovernmental regulation, organizational change, national security, and environmental politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781589011533
Publisher:	Georgetown University Press
Publication date:	08/13/2012
Series:	Public Management and Change Series
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	314
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Robert F. Durant is professor of public administration and policy at American University. He has received numerous research awards, including the 2000 Best Book Award from the Public and Nonprofit Division of the Academy of Management; the Gladys M. Kammerer Award for the best book on U.S. national policy from the American Political Science Association; and the Charles H. Levine Memorial Award given jointly by the American Society for Public Administration and the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration. He is a fellow in the National Academy of Public Administration.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acronyms

1. A World Apart?

2. Greening, National Security, and the Postmodern Military

3. About-Face at the Pentagon?

4. Base Cleanups, Sovereign Impunity, and the Expansion of the Beaten Zone

5. Guns, Dogs, Fences, and Base Transfers

6. Missiles, Mayhem, and the Munitions Rule

7. Natural Resources Management, Miltary Training, and the Greening of the Drone Zone

8. Safety, Security, and Chemical Weapons Demilitarization

9. Pollution Prevention, Energy Conservation, and the Perils of Châteaux Generalship

10. Avoiding the Harder Right in the Post-Clinton Era?

11. Lessons for Practice and Theory

Index

What People are Saying About This

Denise Scheberle

A very well-written book describing the attempts to instill a 'beyond compliance' environmental culture in the military and the forces that shape these efforts. In short, no book is as up-to-date and extensive or as theoretical. The scholarship is superior.

Kent E. Portney

For those who may have formed impressions of the Pentagon's progress, or lack thereof, in becoming greener, this highly readable and accessible book is an indispensable resource.

Michael Barzelay

The Greening of the U.S. Military helps to add energy, depth, and luster to academic studies of policy history, bureaucratic politics, and public management.

Hal G. Rainey

A highly significant contribution to analysis and understanding of organizational change in government.

From the Publisher

"For those who may have formed impressions of the Pentagon's progress, or lack thereof, in becoming greener, this highly readable and accessible book is an indispensable resource." -- Kent E. Portney, professor of political science, Tufts University

" The Greening of the U.S. Military helps to add energy, depth, and luster to academic studies of policy history, bureaucratic politics, and public management." -- Michael Barzelay, professor of public management, London School of Economics and Political Science

"[A] highly significant contribution to analysis and understanding of organizational change in government." -- Hal G. Rainey, Alumni Foundation Distinguished Professor, The University of Georgia

"A very well-written book describing the attempts to instill a 'beyond compliance' environmental culture in the military and the forces that shape these efforts. In short, no book is as up-to-date and extensive or as theoretical. The scholarship is superior." -- Denise Scheberle, professor of public and environmental affairs, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

Editorial Reviews

The book is a powerful case study of an institution (the military) with a long and storied history of how that institution responded to change.

Public Organization Review

A wonderful book. Durant's opus is a must read for scholars, policy practitioners, and students of government and organizational behavior.

Review of Policy Research

[The] insight, organization, and analytic rigor of Durant's book could not be clearer or more compelling. This is an important and well crafted piece of high-quality scholarship. Anyone with an interest in environmental policy and or organizational change will learn a great deal from this work.

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory

"[A] wonderful book. Durant's opus is a must read for scholars, policy practitioners, and students of government and organizational behavior." -- Review of Policy Research

"[The] insight, organization, and analytic rigor of Durant's book could not be clearer or more compelling. This is an important and well crafted piece of high-quality scholarship. Anyone with an interest in environmental policy and or organizational change will learn a great deal from this work." -- Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory

"The book is a powerful case study of an institution (the military) with a long and storied history of how that institution responded to change." -- Public Organization Review

From the Publisher