American Militarism in US Congress: Another Military Transformation from the 103rd to the 112th Congress By [Copyright 2015] KeeHyun Ahn Submitted to the graduate degree program in the Department of Political Science and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________________________ Chairperson Mark R. Joslyn ________________________________ Co-chair Michael S. Lynch ________________________________ Don Haider-Markel ________________________________ Jiso Yoon ________________________________ Adrian R. Lewis Date Defended: March 26 2015 ii The Dissertation Committee for KeeHyun Ahn certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: American Militarism in US Congress: Another Military Transformation from the 103rd to the 112th Congress ________________________________ Chairperson Mark R. Joslyn ________________________________ Co-chair Michael S. Lynch Date approved: March 26 2015 iii Abstracts The armed forces are maintained in two ways –in both the military way and the militaristic way. In this sense, every nation which has its own military has specific features of militarism, regardless of how dominant these features are over other parts of the society. The U.S. has its own type of militarism in the military and the society. In the United States, there is a belief that the US military should be number one in the world. This American public belief takes various shapes of military imperatives which connect every part of society with military and lead them to cooperate and support the realization of these imperatives. In Part I, the dissertation shows that military transformation in the post-Cold War era is an example that shows how American militarism works in American society. During this period, public opinion showed a positive and significant correlation with defense spending. Within the US military, American Militarism has led the Department of Defense and military services to the endless preparation for a future adversary in the situation of strategic uncertainty after the Cold War era. Defense related industries have strongly supported the military’s effort to be number one in military affairs. In the political arena, the congressional committee which is responsible for national defense seems inclined to be conservative in the matter of ideology – more conservative than the median in the House of Representatives. In Part II, the dissertation explores how American Militarism has influenced on the decisions of each legislator in the roll call votes on amendments regarding defense authorizations and appropriations bills. The result reveals that authorization process is more predictable than appropriation process. Furthermore, the result shows that the amount of PAC contributions to each legislator is a significant factors to determine legislators’ choices in roll call votes in authorization process even though ideological aspect of individual legislators ideology is still influential in decision making of each legislator. iv Acknowledgments When I hesitated to jump in the journey, My Lord – Jesus Christ showed me the way to go. During the journey, my wife and son – Jisun and Joonmo – always stayed with me and encouraged me. They are my great partners of the journey. We are the best team ever. My parents supported the journey and prayed for their son and his team in a long distance. In the journey, I met Great mentors. My advisor, Professor Mark Joslyn, advised me to stay positive even during the most difficult period of the journey. Professor Michael Lynch showed me where and how to explore during the journey. Professor Adrian Lewis gave me a compass to sail in the ocean of military history. Pastor Lanny Maddux did not hesitate to read all the text and gave me advices for better English writing. v Table of Contents Chapter 1. Introduction: US Armed Forces, Defense Policy, Congress and military transformation ...........................................................................................1 1. Overview of the dissertation ...................................................................................... 3 2. Defense policy as a policy domain ........................................................................... 5 3. Military Transformation and American Militarism .......................................... 8 A. F-35: Product of Military Transformation after the Cold War ...............................10 4. Politics of Weapon Procurement Programs ....................................................... 11 5. Congressional Budgetary Process and Defense Acquisition ....................... 13 6. Summary ........................................................................................................................... 15 Part I. Politics of Military transformation after the Cold War .. 17 Chapter 2. Historical Overview of Military Transformation and Militarism ......................................................................................................................... 17 1. RMA, Military Transformation, Military Reform? ........................................... 18 2. Theories of Military Transformation .................................................................... 20 3. Militarism in the United States ................................................................................ 24 4. Social and Political Context of the Military Transformation: What is the background of the military transformation? ..................................................... 28 A. Congress ...........................................................................................................................................29 B. Public opinion ................................................................................................................................30 Chapter 3. Militarism and Military Transformation – The US Military .... 34 1. The Base Force Plan ..................................................................................................... 35 2. The Bottom-Up Review ............................................................................................... 39 3. The Reports of Quadrennial Defense Review 1997 ........................................ 44 4. The Reports of Quadrennial Defense Review 2001 ........................................ 48 vi 5. The Reports of Quadrennial Defense Review 2006 ........................................ 50 6. The Reports of Quadrennial Defense Review 2010 ......................................... 53 7. The Reports of Quadrennial Defense Review 2014 ......................................... 54 8. Summary ............................................................................................................................ 56 Chapter 4. Militarism and Military Transformation – Congress and Public ................................................................................................................................... 58 1. Committees’ Responses to Military Transformation ..................................... 60 2. House Armed Services Committee Composition .............................................. 93 3. Public Opinion on US military and Defense Budget ....................................... 97 4. Summary ........................................................................................................................... 108 Chapter 5. Militarism and Military Transformation – Defense Industries ................................................................................................................................ 112 1. JCIDS, DAP, and PPBES ............................................................................................. 112 2. Military Transformation and Defense Industries ........................................ 119 3. F-35 JSF Program: A legacy Jet Fighter or Representative of Military Transformation ........................................................................................................... 123 A. Why does F-35 matter? .............................................................................................123 B. F-35 as a weapon system .........................................................................................126 C. A-X/A/FX and MRF: the Origins of the F-35 ..........................................................127 D. JSAT and JSF: Joint-ness and Industrial Bases ........................................................129 E. The Fifth Generation Jet Fighter: where does it come from? ....................................131 F. Military Transformation, American Militarism and JSF F-35 Program ..................134 Part II. Congressional decision making process ............................ 142 vii Chapter 6: Congressional Decision-Making and Budgetary Process ..... 145 1. Defense Policy as a Federal Policy ...................................................................... 145 2. Congress as a Political Institution ........................................................................ 148 A. The Process in which a Bill Takes in House .............................................................148 B. Partisanship (Party politics) ......................................................................................152 C. Ideological Position of Individual Legislator................................................................. 153 D. Armed Services Committee and Economic Benefits ...................................................