U.S. Military Stakeholders: Who Has a Stake in Defense
This paper analyzes the broad and diverse stakeholder landscape of the U.S. Military, one of the most powerful organizations in the world. Drawing on the historical meaning of the word "stake," the paper identifies stakeholders at multiple levels: global actors affected by U.S. military operations, the presidential administration as ultimate command authority, active-duty service members and veterans who depend on military resources and benefits, and U.S. taxpaying citizens who function as the military's primary investors. The paper also explores the military's significant economic footprint, noting that defense spending supports millions of jobs across numerous sectors of the American economy.
- Introduction: Defining Stakeholders in a Military Context: Historical definition of 'stakeholder' applied to U.S. Military
- Global and Leadership-Level Stakeholders: President and global allies as top-tier stakeholders
- Service Members and Veterans: Soldiers and veterans relying on military resources
- U.S. Citizens as Primary Investors: Taxpayers as the military's primary funding source
- The Military's Role in the U.S. Economy: Defense spending's broad economic impact on jobs
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper uses a clear layered structure, moving from the broadest possible stakeholder definition (global actors) down to specific domestic groups, which gives the argument logical progression.
- It grounds the analysis in a historical definition of the word "stakeholder," lending conceptual rigor to an otherwise straightforward categorization exercise.
- The inclusion of economic data — such as the million-job estimate from defense budget cuts — adds concrete evidence to support the claim that U.S. citizens have a tangible financial stake in military operations.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates stakeholder analysis, a standard management and organizational studies framework, applied to a non-corporate entity. By adapting a business concept to a public institution, the student shows the transferability of theoretical frameworks across different organizational types.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a definitional section grounded in historical usage, then works through stakeholder tiers: global and political leadership, military personnel and veterans, and finally U.S. citizens as taxpayer-investors. Each section identifies the nature of the stake held and provides at least one supporting source. The paper closes by acknowledging the military's economic influence without taking a strong normative position.
Introduction: Defining Stakeholders in a Military Context
The stakeholder group for the U.S. Military is about as diverse as it gets at the organizational level. The U.S. Military is one of the most powerful organizations on the planet, and nearly everyone's life is touched by it — either directly or indirectly. The original meaning of the word stake provides useful insight into who the military's stakeholders might be (Codevilla, 2009).
As Codevilla (2009) explains:
"In the 19th century the word 'stake,' which had meant a bet, also came to mean a share, a claim, or an interest. A 1975 British management textbook defines 'stakeholders' as 'the persons and groups having a direct stake in our organization: the owners, employees… customers, suppliers, financiers, managers, the area in which the organization is established, etc.' But as used currently in the U.S., the term is hardly distinguishable from 'interest groups' or 'corporations.' Hence 'stakeholder primacy' is close to what one might call in economics 'producer primacy' and is diametrically opposed to 'consumer primacy.'"
After World War II, the United States emerged as the dominant superpower in the world. As a result, it has a stake in most of the world's affairs and often deploys its military across a range of objectives — maintaining law and order, preserving peace and prosperity, facilitating economic trade, and pursuing specific U.S. interests across virtually every region of the globe. At the broadest level, therefore, virtually everyone on the planet could be considered a stakeholder in the U.S. Military.
Global and Leadership-Level Stakeholders
On a narrower level, the stakeholders can be understood to begin with military leadership. The President, in his role as Commander in Chief, could be considered the premier stakeholder. The presidential administration is ultimately responsible for the military's overall effectiveness and efficiency in meeting U.S. objectives. The President is also responsible for helping to create and maintain alliances with U.S. allies to address global threats, such as the rise of ISIS (Khouri, 2014). At this highest level of leadership, there exists a global network of stakeholders aligned with U.S. interests in specific causes.
Service Members and Veterans
Beyond the political leadership of the military, the men and women who serve in the U.S. armed forces represent another key stakeholder group. If U.S. leadership enters a ground war in any of the world's conflict zones, it is clear how much soldiers have at "stake" in such an endeavor. There are also significant indirect stakes that persist long after service ends. Veterans and their families rely on the military organization to provide a range of benefits, and the way the organization allocates its resources can have a substantial and lasting impact on them well beyond the period of active duty (The Stakeholders, n.d.).
References
Ackerman, S. (2011, October 26). Defense industry: Keep paying us or the economy dies. Retrieved from Wired: http://www.wired.com/2011/10/defense-industry-cuts-economy/
Codevilla, A. (2009, September). From citizen to stakeholders: The new American constitution. Retrieved from The American Spectator: http://spectator.org/articles/40981/citizens-stakeholders-new-american-constitution
Khouri, R. (2014, September 11). Why Obama has picked the worst allies for his war on ISIS. Retrieved from The World Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rami-g-khouri/obama-isis-war-allies_b_5800244.html
The Stakeholders. (n.d.). Veterans/military families. Retrieved from The Stakeholders:
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