The State of the Marine Corps: A Conversation with Commandant James Amos

As more U.S. Marines come home from Afghanistan, attention is turning to the impact of general budget cuts and those related to sequestration, as well as future strategy in a world full of security threats. For the Marine Corps, this raises issues of force structure, near-term combat readiness, weapons modernization plans, overseas basing and a range of other topics.

On May 29, the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at Brookings hosted General James F. Amos, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. Amos has been the commandant of the Marine Corps since 2010 after serving as assistant commandant since 2008. Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow at Brookings and author of the new book Healing the Wounded Giant: Maintaining Military Preeminence While Cutting the Defense Budget (Brookings Press, 2013), moderated a question and answer session following the commandant’s remarks.