nding the responsibility and authority of the commanders of the unified and specified combatant commands (CINCs), improving the formulation of strategy and contingency planning, and providing for more efficient use of defense resources. These aims, and the others of the GNA were intended to increase the unified direction and action of the armed forces by reforming the dysfunctional relationships among the Secretary of Defense, the Service Secretaries, CJCS, JCS, CINCs and Service components, and the Service Chiefs (Lovelace, 1996, p. 42).
The first of the aims noted above, expanding the authority and responsibility of the CINCs, was intended to reduce the influence of Service parochialism and increase the focus of the Department of Defense on the needs of the CINCs. Among the direct effects of the GNA was to enhance the authority of the CINCs in the resource allocation process by allowing them to express their preferences for resource allocation in the Planning, Programming and Budgeting System (PPBS) and by requiring the CJCS to advise the Secretary of Defense on the priorities of the CINCs. In addition, the CINCs were given the authority to dismiss their component commanders and to issue orders durectly to the forces under their control, rather than through the component commanders (Lovelace, 1996, pp. 50-52; Art, 1992, p. 5).
The second aim noted above, improving str
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