Once again, the challenge to the U.S. Army during a defense reduction
Subtitle: to remain a military profession
By: Don M. Snider
Contributors: Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute
Series: Professional military ethics monograph series -- v. 4.; Professional military ethics monograph series -- v. 4.
Publisher: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Carlisle, PA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 34
ISBN-13: 9781584875215
Subjects: Vocational guidance; Military ethics; Professional employees; United States; Soldiers; United States. Army; Professional ethics
Other titles: Once again, the challenge to the US Army during a defense reduction; Once again, the challenge to the United States Army during a defense reduction
Description: As with the post-Cold War downsizing during the Clinton administration in the late 1990s, one critical challenge for the U.S. Army centers on the qualitative, institutional character of the Army after the reductions -- will the U.S. Army manifest the essential characteristics and behavior of a military profession with soldiers and civilians who see themselves sacrificially called to a vocation of service to country within a motivating professional culture that sustains a meritocratic ethic, or will the Army's character be more like any other government occupation in which its members view themselves as filing a job, motivated mostly by the extrinsic factors of pay, location, and work hours? In mid-2010, the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff directed the Commanding General, Training and Doctrine Command, then General Martin Dempsey, to undertake a broad campaign of learning, involving the entire Department. The intent was to think through what it means for the Army to be a profession of arms and for its soldiers and civilians to be professionals as the Army largely returns stateside after a decade of war and then quickly transitions to the new era of Defense reductions. Several new preceptions of the Army as a military profession have been produced, along with numerous initiatives that are currently being staffed to strengthen the professional character of the Army as it simultaneously recovers from a decade of war and transitions through reductions in force. They form the descriptive content of this monograph.
Notes: "February 2012."

Includes bibliographical references (p. 30-34).

Also available online in PDF format from Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) web site. Adobe Acrobat Reader required.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: The background realities; title: Including Army civilians; title: The essential characteristics of the Army profession; title: The way ahead; title: Conclusion.