The Pentagon Can’t Be Run Like a Business

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's Department of Government Efficiency is turning its attention toward the Defense Department as its next target for reform.

Peter Bergen : The Pentagon is not a business, but the military represents a fundamentally different challenge for reformers.

Attempt to make the Pentagon run more like a corporation will backfire, he says, and harm U.S. military.

The Pentagon needs change, but effective reform will require appreciating the uniqueness of the organization, authors say.

The need to wholly focus on national security gives the military a special relationship to risk, one that is incomparable to that of a business.

So far, the signs are not encouraging, they say, and the Defense Department has been anything but careful.

Those who serve in the military take an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” Without an understanding of the special role played by the U.S. military, outsiders attempting to make it run like a business will fail.