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Thursday
Oct142010

The Military-Civilian Divide

DateThursday, October 14, 2010 at 06:38

Defense Secretary Robert Gates should be applauded for speaking out on the growing divide between military service and mainstream society. Speaking at Duke University on September 29th, Gates expressed his concern that today less than 1% of the U.S. population serve in the armed forces. From an AP article on the speech:

"Whatever their fond sentiments for men and women in uniform, for most Americans the war remains an abstraction — a distant and unpleasant series of news items that do not affect them personally"

This is a complex and sensitive issue – one that Gates is approaching rather gently leading up to his retirement next year – with worrying implications about the civilian-military balance of power that has governed our military forces throughout our history. To be clear, Gates is probably less focused on the issue of marshalling and maintaining public support for war fighting than he is on the increasing alienation of those who serve and an emerging disdain for civilian leadership (or civilians period).

"There is a risk over time of developing a cadre of military leaders that politically, culturally and geographically have less and less in common with the people they have sworn to defend"

Geographically, as economic power & diversity concentrates around denser, urban areas  across the country, military installations are pushed out to the fringe in more rural, lower income areas. Consider that most people who do serve cite connection to a family member or growing up around the military as by far the top motivator for choosing the military themselves --- and it’s easy to see the self perpetuating nature of this shift. In a more topical view, could there be evidence of this alienation already in the inexplicable and depressing final act of GEN McChrystal in Afghanistan?

Secretary Gates is not exactly promoting any single solution to this problem. He wants to ensure that the military can attract and retain the right talent, even in a period of budgetary downsizing. There will (hopefully) be plenty of debate and many differing perspectives on this issue. Those in the business of doing business with the military should rightfully push for DoD to build more economic connections to the armed forces by encouraging entrepreneurialism and a strong, diverse industrial base to support the military. The Government should make and follow through on commitment to small businesses and to improved partnering with all businesses, not just those firms at the very top of the defense industry. They should enhance technology venturing and investing, direct into the commercial market, and give young engineers a reason to create solutions for the ground-breaking technologies that DoD wants. They can do more to tell the good story that defense is about more than bombs and tanks --- it’s actually the forefront of mobile computing, network communications, power & battery tech, advanced materials, complex event processing & knowledge management, alternative fuels… an impressive list of leading edge, super cool technologies that should be winning more engineers and entrepreneurs from Google and Apple.

Preventing large scale social and cultural isolation of the military will take more than better recruiting and benefits, more so than even can be done within the military ranks at all. Business can bring people closer to the spirit of military service and deepen the connections across different segments of society to those who serve. Hopefully Gates agrees.

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