Reflection on an Ethic of Officership
Abstract
Units of the United States Army are engaged in two protracted counterinsurgency campaigns that stress the institution in many ways. Among the most dangerous challenges of insurgent wars is their corrosive environment that wears on even highly disciplined soldiers and from time to time brings ethical failures that strike at the reputation of the entire force. The protracted nature of the struggle also challenges the patience of many citizens, among them the retired cohort of the armed forces. There was an argument even before the war about the proper role of military figures in national policy debates. This has been exacerbated recently by public demands from distinguished retired officers for the dismissal of the then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the second most senior civilian in the military chain of command. After the 2006 midterm elections, one retired general even suggested in the editorial pages of The New York Times that the Army was no longer with the civilian leadership. This article is designed to lay out a framework for discussion of the limits of proper conduct by those who hold the President's commission, active and retired; and to answer the question: What is an Ethic of Officership? It is at first striking that the only category of Army member lacking a coherent official or expressed ethic, or creed, is the commissioned Army leader. There are the Code of Conduct, Army Values, "Warrior Ethos," and a "Soldier's Creed" to guide all uniformed members, including officers. There is a Noncommissioned Officer Creed, and now an Army Civilian Creed, each intended to guide the conduct of other specific categories of Army members. There is, however, no officer's creed, though that does not mean there is no ethic of officership where ethic is defined according to the German sociologist Max Weber as "those psychological sanctions which...give a direction to practical conduct and [hold] the individual to it..."
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA486073
Entities
People
- Richard Swain
Organizations
- United States Army War College