Bend but Do Not Break: Shaping the Future of the All-Volunteer Force

The American military's All-Volunteer Force (AVF) recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. At the time of the post-Vietnam War move to end American military conscription, it was unclear whether a force comprised solely of volunteers could effectively meet the nation's security needs. Yet over the past twenty years, the AVF has grown larger, more generously resourced, and more capable than it had ever previously been absent an active major conflict. In Bend but Do Not Break, a broad range of experts assess the long-term viability of the AVF. To do this, they address a host of challenges facing the AVF and, by extension, the politicized environment in which it operates. An informed and balanced look at the AVF, this book considers the future of the force and asks the wider question of whether it continues to serve the needs of national security or individuals in the military.

Jaron S. Wharton is an infantry officer who commanded a brigade in the US Army. He previously served on the National Security Council staff as a deputy executive secretary and later as the chief of staff to the deputy national security advisor for strategy. He is a former White House Fellow, research Fellow at West Point's Modern War Institute (MWI), and military Fellow at both the Center for a New American Security and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Keith L. Carter is an Associate Professor in the United States Naval War College at the Naval Postgraduate School, where he serves as the Associate Dean. He is a Senior non-resident Fellow at the Cornell Tech Policy Institute and a Fellow at the United States Air Force Academyâs Institute for Future Conflict. Before joining the Naval War College, he served for over twenty years as an infantry officer in the United States Army.

Katherine L. Kuzminski is the Director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security. She was previously a political scientist at the RAND Corporation where she led research teams examining officer personnel management, reserve component transition issues, senior officer selection and development, military culture, and ground force capability development.

Max Z. Margulies is an Associate Professor in the Department of History and War Studies at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He has previously served in a variety of other academic positions at West Point, including as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences, Executive Director of the Rupert H. Johnson Grand Strategy Program, and Chief Research Officer at the Modern War Institute. He is also a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Jason K. Dempsey is the Executive Director of the Center for Veteran Transition and Integration at Columbia University. He has written on Army efforts toward gender integration, the experiences of Hispanics in the military, and the failure of our counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan. He is the author of Our Army: Soldiers, Politics and Civil-Military Relations, a former White House Fellow, at the Center for New America Security. He served for over twenty years as an infantry officer in the Army.

Carrie A. Lee is a Senior Fellow with the Security and Democracy Initiative at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and a visiting scholar with the University of Pennsylvania. From 2021-2025, she was chair of the Department of National Security and Strategy at the United States Army War College. She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, contributing editor with War on the Rocks, regular columnist for World Politics review, and a Fellow with the Truman National Security Project.