WE28 www.mca-marines.org/gazette
Marine Corps Gazette • June 2020
Ideas & Issues (PMe)
J
ust as there is risk to the Marine
Corps’ modernization, there
is more risk inherent in failing
to adapt. If the Marine Corps
shifts its posture and design with-
out also shifting its minds, then a criti-
cal conceptual vulnerability remains.
New equipment and headquarters are
required, but if they are not connected
to the appropriate mental models and
frameworks, their value will be limited
at best. Given that none of the current
eight “Commandant’s Choice” books
for all Marines focuses on naval integra-
tion, the probability of this occurring is
too great to leave to chance. The Marine
Corps must modernize its institutional
mind by revising the Commandant’s
Professional Reading List.
Professional reading lists circum-
scribe an “organization’s intellectual
priorities and canonical foundation.”
These lists, as I’ve written before, “dis-
play [organizational] values.” Since
1989, when then-Commandant Gen
Alfred M. Gray issued the order, the
Marine Corps has had a Professional
Reading List. The list has evolved over
the years and was last published and
updated by former Commandant Gen
Robert B. Neller in March 2019.
The Commandant’s Planning Guid‑
ance, published in July 2019 by Com-
mandant Gen David H. Berger, is a
profound reorientation for the Marine
Corps. It sets the Marine Corps on a
path toward executing the responsi-
bilities set forth in the 2018 National
Defense Strategy. Gen Berger’s “Notes
on Designing the Marine Corps of the
Future” further underscores the impera-
tive, scale, and degree of the change
required. A reading list in support of
the Commandant’s Planning Guidance
will help its implementation.
This article provides recommenda-
tion to modernize the Commandant’s
Professional Reading List. First, it es-
tablishes a set of ten books narrowly
focused on the demands of the guid-
ance. Marines, like before, are required
to read a minimum of five. Second, it
separates out two categories, the main
effort, which is the set of ten works,
and the supporting effort, a collection
of subsets of works for further explora-
tion divided by interest (e.g., strategy,
history, technology, leadership, and by
region). Crucially, the list is no longer
segregated by rank. Given that warfare’s
future is no longer about the general—
it is about the sergeant and the lieuten-
ant—it is imperative that all Marines
have a conceptual understanding that
moves seamlessly between the tactical
and the strategic. Additionally, narrow-
ing the focus to a key ten works means
that the likelihood that a colonel and
corporal have recently read the same
book is greater. This fosters more of a
book club mentality that can easily fit
into a training and exercise schedule.
It should also be noted that MCDP 1,
Warfighting, is no longer included on
the list. Our doctrine must saturate how
we plan, think, and act. It is an implied
task to continuously refactor our think-
ing through a warfighting lens. It is an
expectation to read and re-read War‑
fighting. It need not be called-out. Most
importantly, the intellectual main effort
establishes the “canonical foundation”
necessary for the force demanded by the
Commandant’s Planning Guidance. In
fact, such a conceptual reorganization
will enable Marines “to challenge the
status quo and continue to ask the hard
questions—regardless of the discomfort
they produce.”
These are the ten recommended
books for the main effort:
Commandant’s
Professional
Reading List
A call
by Capt Olivia Garard
>Capt Garard is an Unmanned Air-
craft Systems Officer currently serv-
ing with the Marine Corps Warfight-
ing Lab.
By reading, you learn through others’ experiences,
generally a better way to do business, especially in
our line of work where the consequences of incom-
petence are so final for young men [and women].
—Secretary James N. Mattis
