Even as the Army increased its commitment to peacekeeping, its overall strength declined, as defence budgets dropped from their Cold War heights. This drawdown saw the Army turn inwards as it managed the shift from a forward-deployed overseas force to a smaller one primarily based in the continental United States. As the Army’s numbers fell and the overseas missions it deployed on increased, soldiers and their families suffered from the increase in operational tempo and the Army struggled to retain personnel. Later in the decade, the Army faced a severe recruiting shortfall amid a booming economy, as it missed its enlistment targets in 1998 and 1999. This shortfall, which coincided with an increasing reliance on the National Guard and Army Reserve for overseas deployments, as well as internal deliberations over the changing role of the Army, prompted renewed concerns about the health of the All-Volunteer Force. Tensions between the twin ideals of the ‘citizen soldier’ and the ‘profession of arms’ were heightened after the end of the Cold War, as the Army’s leadership struggled to rethink the nature of military service while managing a large-scale drawdown from their 1980s peak.

Yet decades into the twenty-first century, the secularist, communitarian, and race-conscious orders’ hold upon America’s judicial institutions now appears increasingly shaky. Growing partisan alignment within America’s foundational struggles binds the fate of these orders closer to the fortunes of the Democratic Party. Republican Party power lends strength to individualist, accommodationist, and color-blind forces. Policy goals that were once likely to receive an unsympathetic hearing – whether white nativism, religious accommodation, or program privatization – are elevated by the Trump presidency. Hence, there is less need for individualists, accommodationists, and color-blind orders to attenuate the connection between the central government and these policy goals. They can pursue them openly. The passage, growth, and legal durability of doubly distanced tax credit scholarships since 2010 have given legal cover for policymakers and advocates to experiment with new forms of voucher program: education savings accounts (ESAs). ESAs are typically less attenuated in policy delivery than tax credit scholarships.