Wikipedia
Andrew J. Bacevich, The Nation: Who Runs the Pentagon?
Not Defense Secretary Ashton Carter—while he may be more than a figurehead, “the building” has no boss.
The crippling and pervasive defects in us national-security policy—costly exertions that, time and again, fail to yield the promised results—are patently obvious, consistently bemoaned, and yet effectively tolerated. To say that the apparatus principally responsible for implementing those policies is an underperforming behemoth qualifies as a considerable understatement. The kindest verdict one can offer regarding the Pentagon is that it marginally outperforms its first cousin, the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The next president will enter office in January 2017 vowing to correct those defects. The likelihood that he or she will succeed in doing so is nil. The reasons why are legion, but prominent among them is the fact that those who ascend to the top of the national-security apparatus invariably arrive in the Pentagon as unwitting agents of the status quo. By the time they land one of the top jobs, they have long since forfeited any capacity for critical thought.
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WNU Editor: I read a similar post a year ago from Russia asking the same question .... who runs the Russian military? The answer was the same .... the Russians like the Americans have their political leader and Commander in Chief, followed by the civilian heads, followed by a few senior Generals, and then followed by a lot of other Generals, and underneath them a huge bureaucracy. In short .... no one. The only thing that the leadership can do is set a direction .... and with time and perseverance .... that direction may actually move forward.