Only the Most Able

Moving Beyond Politics in the Selection of National Security Leaders

By: Stephen M. Duncan

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eText | 5 October 2012 | Edition Number 1

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The nature of the threats facing America today has drastically reduced the margin for error in senior political appointments. In Only the Most Able, Stephen M. Duncan draws on a lifetime of military, public service, executive, and legal experience to critique the political appointment process, focusing on departments that deal with national security—the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security. He looks at how the current methods for making appointments put people in positions for which they are not qualified and not prepared. Rather, he argues, appointments should be made on the basis of one's qualifications and merits—those who lead our military should be people with military experience, and those who must make executive decisions should be people who have served and excelled in an executive capacity. Identifying the successful traits of leaders such as Winston Churchill, General George Marshall, nationally-known business executives, and others, Duncan argues with unusual insight and candor why the quality and performance of senior political appointees who are charged even in part with the nation's security, must be improved, and offers specific recommendations on how this can be accomplished. This timely book will appeal to Americans of all political persuasions, as well as those with particular interests in political and military history.

Industry Reviews

The thesis of this book is that the current process of selecting national security leaders is inadequate. The military is capable of selecting and disciplining its leaders, but the presidents and senators who appoint political leaders to various national security agencies have not developed a successful system. Hence, key national security officials are haphazardly selected, often ineffective, and seldom disciplined when they fail. This book is distinctive because Duncan (formerly, assistant secretary of defense) has not only the courage but also the knowledge to cite examples of political appointees who should never have been appointed and whose mistakes jeopardized the safety of the American people. Too often, neither presidents nor senators understand what qualities an individual must have to be effective. Hence, they use misguided political criteria rather than substantial qualifications to make selections. The problem has become more acute in recent decades because of the decline in the number of presidents or senators who have security-related experience. The solution: those who do the selecting must understand that appointing a leader to a national security agency for political reasons is just as bad as selecting a military leader for political reasons. Summing Up: Recommended.