Reforging Excalibur: Creating a Sustainable and Relevant Defense for 21st-Century America

Reforging Excalibur is an exciting and unique proposal for restructuring America’s armed forces in order to better prepare us for Fourth-Generation warfare. After a withering critique of the bloat and waste of the Department of Defense and Pentagon’s “business as usual” attitude towards military spending, the authors disclose why this approach is unsustainable in terms of budget and combat readiness. In short, while our military is prepared to fight wars with other state militaries, it is woefully unprepared — psychologically and structurally — to succeed in Fourth-Generation warfare.

The authors address social experiments and challenges hoisted upon military servicemen that wind up confusing and emasculating them as effective warriors: the deleterious effects of women and gay men in units, insufficient command time for commanding officers, et al. These issues have been discussed behind closed doors among combat veterans for years, although they are never openly addressed by general officers before Congress. This book aims to change that conversation.

Ultimately, the vision that Lind and Ewald share is one of a military scaled down to precision, while the National Guard takes on a new and bold outsized role in protecting the United States.