Is the Joint Force Ready for a High-Tech, Multidomain, Evolving World?: A Study of Professional Reading Lists

What must the U.S. military of tomorrow look like? Using the U.S. Marine Corps’ 2024 Commandant’s Professional Reading List (CPRL) as a proxy for what military personnel are being told to know, the authors of this article questioned whether the Marine Corps is ready to envision a future U.S. military capable of Joint, inter-Service, interagency, and multinational multidomain operations. The authors assumed that professional reading lists focus on topics critical to future warfare and professional military education. As a benchmark, the authors have compared the CPRL’s topics to those in U.S. Army general George S. Patton Jr.’s “favorite books” list. Additionally, the authors have compared content in the CPRL to the most recent Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community. This article identifies gaps in the CPRL and consequently the Marine Corps’ ability to envision a future force beyond 2030. The authors suggest categories of books that need to be added to professional reading lists to help prepare the Marine Corps and other U.S. military Services for future warfare.