Reviving a Culture of Disciplined Compliance in Air Force Nuclear Operations

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During the Cold War, the mission of nuclear deterrence was widely viewed as the foundation of American military power. Under the strict disciplinarian leadership of Strategic Air Command, a culture of disciplined compliance formed over time that helped ensure mission success for its prestigious nuclear forces until the early 1990s. With the end of the Cold War, the United States found itself increasingly committed to conventional conflicts throughout the world as the stability of a bipolar environment ended with the fall of the Soviet Union. Against this backdrop, the U.S. Air Force reorganized itself and began driving for efficiencies in how it conducted tactical/conventional warfare. A culture of decentralization and flexibility began to dominate all mission areas of the service. Unfortunately, this led to a reduced interest in (and attention to) the nuclear enterprise. Over nearly 20 years, the deterioration in this once-prominent mission set began to reveal itself in poor inspection results, sagging numbers of top-tier personnel, facility decay, and eventually, real-world mistakes.