Rack SR – Reserve Components

Aisle S – Special Enterprises

Library:  Main Page — Professional Development (A) — Defense Enterprise (E) — Force Structure (F) — Modernization (M) — Personnel (P) — Readiness (R) — Special Enterprises (S) — Resource Management (X) — References (Z)

Special Enterprises (S):  Cyber (SC) — Defense Support to Civil Authorities (SD) — Special Operations (SF) — Intelligence (SI) — Law & Military Justice (SL) — Military Medicine (SM) — Nuclear Forces (SN) — Security Force Assistance (SP) — Reserve Components (SR) — Space (SS) — Chaplaincy (SY)


Disclaimer: The inclusion of resources here is for informational, historical, and research purposes only and is provided as a service for US Army War College faculty, students, and graduates to support their educational and professional requirements. These may include outdated or superseded materials. The inclusion of these materials does not constitute endorsement by the U.S. Army War College, the U.S. Army, or Department of Defense.


​​​​​​​This rack contains resources that pertain to the reserve component enterprise as distinct from the ordinary services. For example, matters that are of direct interest to the service-level reserve component offices (such as the National Guard Bureau and Office of the Chief of the Army Reserve) plus matters of relationships between the states and their National Guards should be found here. Matters where the reserve component perspective is a component part of the overall service or Department perspective — such as covered in the Personnel (P), Modernization (M), Readiness (R), and Force Structure (F) aisles — then the reserve components will be given appropriate shelf space in those aisles. Where helpful, the desire will be to provide redundant entries.

Shelf SR.00 — General

This shelf contains general resources on theory and practice in reserve component management and operations — this supplements materials in Aisle P — Personnel, Rack FM — Manning the Force, and mobilization-related materials elsewhere in the Library. This shelf is a stub — please contribute!

Faculty Publications:
  • None.
Laws, Policies, Memos, and Regulations (sorted by regulation number):
Strategies and Reports:
Commentaries (inclusion does not represent endorsement):

Shelf SR.EN — Comprehensive Reviews of the Reserve Component Enterprise

This shelf provides resources associated with comprehensive or significant reviews of the reserve component enterprise that often combine roles and missions reviews, unique personnel and materiel issues, and the RC’s connection with civil society. These are service-independent — encompassing a reserve component across all the services.

Faculty Publications:
  • None.
Laws, Policies, Memos, and Regulations (sorted by regulation number):
  • None.
Strategies and Reports:
Commentaries (inclusion does not represent endorsement):
  • None.

Shelf SD.MB — Activation, Mobilization, Utilization, & De-mobilization

This shelf covers the specific challenges of employing the reserve components, covering the various phases of activation through de-mobilization. Resources also include enterprise-level readiness concerns unique to the RC such as impacts to civilian employment. 

Faculty Publications:
  • None.
Laws, Policies, Memos, and Regulations (sorted by regulation number):
Strategies and Reports:
Commentaries (inclusion does not represent endorsement):

Shelf SR.OF — Operational vs. Strategic Force Question

This shelf covers the general policy debate between the reserves serving as an operational or strategic reserve. The latter had been the traditional view whereby the active forces conducted operations first until such time as additional resources were needed in the force of mobilized reserves. 

Faculty Publications:
  • None.
Laws, Policies, Memos, and Regulations (sorted by regulation number):
Strategies and Reports:
Commentaries (inclusion does not represent endorsement):
  • None.

Shelf SR.TF — Total Force Policies

This shelf covers so-called Total Force Policies, which are generally intended to overcome the structural and cultural differences between active and reserve components in order to harmonize the services or defense enterprise.

Faculty Publications:
  • None.
Laws, Policies, Memos, and Regulations (sorted by regulation number):
Strategies and Reports:
Commentaries (inclusion does not represent endorsement):
  • None.

Shelf SR.ZH — Histories of the Reserve Components

This shelf includes resources specific to historical accounts of reserve component utilization in war, ordinarily focusing on how they experience warfighting differently from active forces.

Faculty Publications:
  • None.
Laws, Policies, Memos, and Regulations (sorted by regulation number):
  • None.
Strategies and Reports:
Commentaries (inclusion does not represent endorsement):
  • None.

Title image credit: Master Sgt. Matt Hecht ​​​​​​​via NationalGuard.mil, public domain.

Special Enterprises (S):  Cyber (SC) — Defense Support to Civil Authorities (SD) — Special Operations (SF) — Intelligence (SI) — Law & Military Justice (SL) — Military Medicine (SM) — Nuclear Forces (SN) — Security Force Assistance (SP) — Reserve Components (SR) — Space (SS) — Chaplaincy (SY)

Library:  Main Page — Professional Development (A) — Defense Enterprise (E) — Force Structure (F) — Modernization (M) — Personnel (P) — Readiness (R) — Special Enterprises (S) — Resource Management (X) — References (Z)