Maintaining Political Neutrality in the Officer Corps

Abstract

The United States Constitution has stood the test of time as a flexible conceptual framework for governing the country. The document makes demands on its citizens at the same time it guarantees their rights. Some of the demands are not obvious, but implied. For instance, the Constitution does not contain any language mandating political neutrality of the officer corps, but a politically disinterested military is necessary to provide for the common defense. This concept of neutrality took a long time to make its way into the heart of the United States officer corps' value system. Military officers must maintain political neutrality to ensure civilian control of the military, effectiveness of national security policy, and authority of uniformed leadership. The paper is divided into the following sections: History of Political Neutrality as a Military Value, Roots of Current Movement towards Politicization, Effects of Politicization, Civilian Control of the Military, and Authority of Uniformed Leadership.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA499044

Entities

People

  • Brian Mcdowell

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Active Duty
  • Civil War
  • Demography
  • Elections
  • Governments
  • International Organizations
  • Leadership
  • Marine Corps
  • National Governments
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Security
  • Societies
  • United States
  • Universities
  • War
  • War Colleges

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • Strategic Security Studies