organizations, the reality is there are not civilian ca-
pabilities which can match DOD (Serafino et al. 2008).
The focus on sustainability suggests a long-term role
for DOD in other nations is to help prevent the need
to shift from civil assistance to military action by en-
suring natural resource and economic conditions do
not degrade to the point that they engender conflict.
Nothing in this chapter is intended to suggest there is
a ‘silver bullet’ to prevent conflict or to prevent dam-
age when conflict arises. War damages people, other
species, and landscapes. The reality, however, is con-
flict has always been part of human history. There-
fore, having a strong military is desirable. Rethinking
how the military operates, however, is also desirable,
is feasible and is happening.
Commander’s Role
Although it is large, the DOD is also capable of
rapidly mobilizing to implement programs it deems
important. This is in large part because of hierarchi-
cal military structure and the power commanders are
entrusted with in order to command. This is not to
imply commanders do not face bureaucratic obstacles;
they certainly do. There is a substantive difference in
leadership roles and responsibilities when compar-
ing the DOD and other government agencies or with
most private entities. As an example, when newly
employed with the U.S. Army the author expressed
surprise at the rapid success a water conservation pro-
gram had at a specific post. In response, an installa-
tion environmental manager noted when a post com-
mander says, “conserve water” the people under his/
her command listen and obey. In later work on the
Environmental Management Good News publications