FOCUS IS ON ESSENTIAL & CORE ELEMENTS IN THE ANALYSIS OF PROFESSIONALIZATION IN THE MILITARY. IN TRACING THE DEVELOPMENT OF MILITARY PROFESSIONALISM IT MUST BE ACCEPTED THAT THIS WAS ESSENTIALLY AN ...ENFORCED PROFESSIONALISM. THE PATTERN OF DEVELOPMENT CAN BE ASSOCIATED WITH 2 MODELS OF CHANGE. IN THE 1ST, POSITIVE REACTION TO ENFORCED PROFESSIONALISM ENCOURAGED THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNALIZED & SELF-DEFINED EXPERTISE. THIS PLACED CONSIDERABLE EMPHASIS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE, THE CODE OF ETHICS, THE SENSE OF COMMUNITY, & ACQUIRED SKILLS OF THE MILITARY ELITE. THE 2ND MODEL, IN CONTRAST, WAS ASSOCIATED WITH PRAGMATIC PROFESSIONALISM. IN RESPONDING TO EXTERNAL PRESSURE, THE MILITARY REJECTED ABSTRACT THEORIES & IDEAL FORMULATIONS OF EXPERTISE OR STANDARDS OF PERFORMANCE. INSTEAD, THE MILITARY GRADUALLY AMENDED A TRADITION OF AMATEURISM BY EQUATING PROFESSIONALISM WITH THE MINIMUM & VARYING STANDARDS REQUIRED TO ENSURE TASK PERFORMANCE. PROFESSIONALISM IN THE VICTORIAN ARMY, HOWEVER, DID NOT DEVELOP IN ISOLATION; IT CONSISTENTLY ADJUSTED TO THE PROCESSES OF PROFESSIONAL SOCIALIZATION & THE MECHANISMS OF SOCIOPOLITICAL CONTROL. THIS BECAME INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT IN ACCOUNTING FOR THE MILITARY'S SUBSEQUENT POLITICAL OUTLOOK & ITS CONCEPT OF MILITARY PURPOSE. AN UNDERSTANDING OF THIS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IS THEREFORE AN IMPORTANT PREREQUISITE FOR UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEMPORARY BRITISH MILITARY BECAUSE THE CURRENT PROCESS OF PROFESSIONALIZATION WITHIN BRITISH ARMED FORCES IS DERIVED FROM THIS EARLIER DEVELOPMENT. AA.
THE ORIGINS OF MILITARY PROFESSIONALISM REPRESENT A SHARP BREAK WITH THE EUROPEAN FEUDAL TRADITION. IT TOOK PLACE IN THE PRESENT DAY NETHERLANDS WHICH WAS, IN THE CONTEXT OF ITS TIMES, A ...REVOLUTIONARY SOCIETY: HIGHLY URBANIZED, GOVERNED BY A MERCHANT OLIGARCHY RATHER THAN A LANDED ARISTOCRACY, & POLYCENTRIC RATHER THAN ABSOLUTIST IN ITS POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. THE RESULT WAS AN ARMY COMPOSED OF & LED BY FOREIGN MERCENARIES RATHER THAN THE CUSTOMARY FEUDAL LEVIES. THE PECULIAR CIRCUMSTANCES & COMPOSITION OF THE DUTCH ARMY LED TO AN EMPHASIS ON RATIONALIZATION, ROUTINATION, & SYSTEMATIC INSTRUCTION. THE FORMATION & DISCIPLINE OF ITS FORCES WERE BASED ON THE EARLIEST KNOWN OF A FACTORY TYPE SYSTEM: MILITARY BEHAVIOR WAS REGULATED BY THE IMPOSITION OF SERIAL ORDER, EXPLICIT VERBAL COMMANDS, & A FULL CYCLE OPERATION. PRINTED INSTRUCTION MANUALS, PERHAPS THE 1ST FOR ANY TRADE, WERE DEVELOPED. THE DUTCH ARMY OF THIS PERIOD IS POSSIBLY THE FIRST MODERN BUREAUCRATIC ORGANIZATION & THE OPENING WEDGE TO THE MODERN STATE. IT COULD ONLY HAVE COME INTO BEING IN THE COURSE OF A NATIONAL REVOLUTION, IN THIS CASE THE EARLIEST IN MODERN EUROPEAN HISTORY. AA.
DRAWING ON OFFICIAL ARMY RECORDS, MILITARY JOURNALS, PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE, & SIMILAR MATERIALS, THE EVOLUTION OF PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS & BEHAVIOR PATTERNS IN THE OFFICER CORPS OF THE US ARMY ...DURING THE 1ST HALF ON THE 19TH CENTURY IS TRACED. BEFORE THE WAR OF 1812, IT WOULD BE INCORRECT TO SPEAK OF A MILITARY PROFESSION IN THE US. FORMAL MILITARY EDUCATION WAS NONEXISTENT, OFFICERS' CAREERS WERE GENERALLY BRIEF, & MILITARY BUREAUCRACY WAS RUDIMENTARY. DURING THE WAR OF 1812, HOWEVER, A GENERATION OF YOUNG OFFICERS APPEARED WHO--BECAUSE OF THEIR WARTIME EXPERIENCES & THEIR CAREER ASPIRATIONS--STRESSED THE NEED FOR A WELL-ORGANIZED, EDUCATED, & PROFESSIONALIZED OFFICER CORPS, CAPABLE OF SUPERVISING A FUTURE MOBILIZATION. IN THE PERIOD WHICH FOLLOWED, MILITARY LEADERS WERE ABLE TO RATIONALIZE MILITARY BUREAUCRACY, INSTILL REGULARITY INTO THE OFFICER SELECTION PROCESS, & ATTAIN A HIGH DEGREE OF SECURITY IN THE PURSUIT OF THEIR CAREERS. IRONICALLY, THE POPULAR SUSPICION WHICH THE ARMY ATTRACTED IN AN EGALITARIAN ERA INTENSIFIED GROUP AWARENESS & DIFFUSED PROFESSIONAL ATTITUDES THROUGH THE OFFICER CORPS AS A WHOLE. A SIGNIFICANT OUTGROWTH OF THESE INFLUENCES WAS THE SELF-IMAGE OF THE OFFICER CORPS AS AN APOLITICAL INSTRUMENT OF PUBLIC POLICY. THE CONCLUSION IS THAT MILITARY PROFESSIONALIZATION REFLECTED BROADER CHANGES IN THE 19TH CENTURY SOCIAL ORDER, ESPECIALLY THE GRADUAL TREND TOWARD IMPERSONAL, BUREAUCRATIC INSTITUTIONS IN MANY PHASES OF US LIFE. AA.
This short article answers the question of whether, in the context of current American civil–military relations, senior military professionals may loyally dissent from a decision by civilian ...authorities, even including by resignation. Stated another way, can their constitutional duties to obedience to civilian authority ever clash so severely with their responsibilities to their profession and its fiduciary trust with the American people that dissent is obligated. The position offered here is that senior military professionals always retain the moral agency for such dissent. It inheres in their role as a steward of an American military profession exercising the discretionary judgments that are the moral core of their professional work.
