Heroes and Fools - Improving Australian Civil-Military Relations
Abstract
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has gained a position of trust in the Australian community. Australian citizens do not fear the lethal capability they afford the ADF, with good reason. The ADF has developed strong institutional norms that make it almost unthinkable that the military would act against the state. But civil-military relationship ailments can exist short of the extreme of a coup. There are shades of gray in the center of the civil-military relationship spectrum - wherein both politicians and soldiers fail to realize ideal civil-military relationship standards. Ignorance by Australian politicians and military officers of the roles, behavioral constraints and professional expertise typifying sound civil-military relations has provided fertile ground for frustration and poor practices. But until now these problems have gone unnoticed: it appears that a simplistic view of civil-military relations, concerned with extremes rather than shades of gray, has allowed an insidious growth of lesser, but potentially destructive, damaging behavior. Recently, the so-called Child Overboard' affair caused the state of Australian civil-military relations to be questioned by the public, politicians and military professionals. Commentators opined that the military had become politicized: that the government had abused the position of the military for political partisan purposes and that senior military officers had allowed themselves to be abused. This paper examines the health of Australian civil-military relations. It describes the generic norms underpinning a sound civil-military relationship, examines the causes and nature of Australian problems and recommends a set of guidelines aimed at improving Australian civil-military relations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 07, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA415396
Entities
People
- David Chalmers
Organizations
- United States Army War College