Military leadership development

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This article is not a theology lesson in leadership but uses the story of Nathan to demonstrate a leadership principle: every leader needs a trusted cadre of reprovers, like Nathan was to David, within his or her circle of trust.  Also, we present two professional perspectives on this subject—one from a Navy chaplain and the other from a Marine Judge Advocate. The article concludes with recommendations for leadership training and education within the Marine Corps in order to strengthen moral resilience and warrior readiness.

This Monograph, written by staff of the Centre of Leadership Development, attempts to present a historical perspective on the SAF’s thinking with regard to leadership and ethos. It also suggests a broader context of the SAF transformation – one that is tied to the maturing of our Nation, i.e., the post-independence generation – and the changing nature of the military profession.

"The last two decades have witnessed a shift in how we perceive Xenophon the Athenian. Having fallen into neglect in the twentieth century, scholars now attempt to resuscitate and ultimately ‘rehabilitate’ Xenophon. The present thesis proposes that the initial decline in interest and the continued debate over how he ought to be studied rests in part with an increased emphasis on contemporary democracy and misunderstandings of Xenophon’s ideology in its intellectual context. To this end, traditional narratives of Xenophon’s life and earlier scholarship concerned with Xenophon’s thought are outlined and deconstructed. Suppositional evidence supporting this received opinion is demonstrated to rely on uncertain reconstructions of biography and background that in reality ought to be rejected as inadequate foundations for analysing Xenophon’s oeuvre or situating Xenophon’s thought along our modern political spectrum.

The present thesis employs a contextualist approach to examine key themes present across Xenophon’s works and asks how an idealised fourth-century Athenian democrat could have understood Xenophon’s thought in light of democratic ideology. By privileging the period in which he was educated, lived, and ultimately wrote, rather than the successive ages in which his works were appropriated for decidedly separate ends by other political thinkers, it is demonstrated that Xenophon presented himself as advising and enhancing fourth-century Athenian democracy. Contrary to views that Xenophon favoured monarchic, autocratic, or oligarchic constitutions over democracy, it is argued that nothing in Xenophon’s corpus necessitates the rejection of democracy or the tenets of democratic ideology. Rather, Xenophon offers paradigms inspired by, and compatible with, Athenian democratic ideals. It also argues that Xenophon wrote specifically to realign the Athenian élite - whom he rebukes for undermining the overall standing, prosperity, and welfare of Athens and its democracy - with democratic expectations. In doing so, his works express a desire to help the fourth-century democracy realise its geo-political aspirations while living up to is professed ideals.
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בשלושת העשורים האחרונים ,חל שינוי הדרגתי ובלתי מתוכנן בהגדרת מהותה של המנהיגות הצבאית בצה"ל. במהלכו ,רחקה המנהיגות הצה"לית ממקורותיה בכוחות היבשה כמסורת כריזמטית-מעשית, והפכה למנהיגות בעלת מאפיינים עסקיים וניהוליים .חלק מהשינויים הללו מתאימים לגופים שונים בתוך צה"ל, אך הם גורמים להענקת משקל חסר לייעודו המרכזי כארגון צבאי לוחם .לטענת הכותבים ,ההתעלמות הנוכחית מחשיבותה של מנהיגות קרבית פוגעת בכוחות היבשה ,אשר זקוקים למנהיגות ההולמת את משימתם ואת הגיון פעילותם .יש לפעול עוד היום לטיפוח מנהיגות צבאית אלטרנטיבית עבור לוחמי המחר ,שמכילה את המרכיבים הרוחניים-אידיאולוגיים הנחוצים להם בשדה הקרב .על זרוע היבשה לכתוב מסד תפיסתי ותורתי כולל ,כצעד ראשוני והכרחי לתהליך זה.

In a period of consistent conflict, military leaders must have the ability to extend their influence beyond the military rank and file structure in order to operate effectively in politically and culturally charged operational environments. This monograph explores how military leaders must understand when to minimize the use of their perceived legitimate (position) power and rely more heavily upon other ―softer‖ sources of power or influence tactics.

The Forward Command technique used by some German commanders in WWII is worthy of study. Commander’s intent is not a reiteration of the scheme of maneuver. A scheme of maneuver is considered only one way, usually the initial concept on how to accomplish the mission. Initial concepts are usually based on the terrain and information on the enemy. In forward command, as more information on the enemy is acquired, the subordinate commander is expected to act accordingly and secure the objective by the best possible means.For military commanders, the need to understand the concept of forward command is  important today as it was in WWII.

Most books and articles still treat leadership and ethics as related though separate phenomena. This edited volume is an exception to that rule, and explicitly treats leadership and ethics as a single domain. Clearly, ethics is an aspect of leadership, and not a distinct approach that exists alongside other approaches to leadership. This holds especially true for the military, as it is one of the few organizations that can legitimately use violence. Military leaders have to deal with personnel who have either used or experienced violence. This intertwinement of leadership and violence separates military leadership from leadership in other professions. Even in a time that leadership is increasingly questioned, it is still good leadership that keeps soldiers from crossing the thin line between legitimate force and excessive violence.


Table of contents
1. Introduction. Peter Olsthoorn;
2. Armouring Against Atrocity: Developing Ethical Strength in Small Military Units. Lieutenant Colonel Tom McDermott DSO and Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Stephen Hart RM;
3. Ethical Leadership in the Military: The gap Between Theory and Practice in Ethics Education. Miriam C. de Graaff, Peter W. de Vries, Walter J. van Bijlevelt and Ellen Giebels;
4. ABCA Coalition Operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Beyond: Two Decades of Military Ethics Challenges and Leadership Responses. David Whetham;
5. Military Leaders, Fragmentation, and the Virtue of Integrity. Nathan L. Cartagena and Michael D. Beaty;
6. Military Integrity: Moral or Ethical? Patrick Mileham;
7. Soldiers’ Autonomy and Military Authority. Mihaly Boda;
8. The concept of Innere Führung: Dimensions of its Ethics. Angelika Dörfler-Dierken;
9. Intervening as a Moral Duty: Michael Walzer versus a Multilateralism Approach. Arseniy Kumankov;
10. When International Dialogue about Military Ethics Confronts Diverse Cultural and Political Practices: ‘Guilt And Confession’ as a Case in Point. George R. Wilkes;
11. Moral Judgement in War and Peacekeeping Operations: An Empirical Review. Miriam C. de Graaff, Femke D.A. den Besten, Ellen Giebels and Desiree Verweij;
12. The Disenchantment of Victory and Ethical Dilemmas For Military Leadership: Sovereignty, the Spell of War and Elusiveness of Victory. Boris Kashnikov;
13. Special Forces and Ethics: A Preliminary Assessment of the Leadership Challenge. Deane-Peter Baker.

This paper discusses leadership development within the institutional and operational context of the Dutch Army, with the idea that there are lessons here that are also relevant for other armies. Building  on the assumption that leadership can be developed, the first section after the introduction discusses the pros and cons of the leadership schools that are most relevant to the military. The  three subsequent sections delve deeper into the related topics of ethical, transformational, and unobtrusive leadership. These sections question the alleged benefits of transformational leadership for the military, argue that a value based approach might be better than virtue ethics as regards to ethics education for junior leaders, and finally criticize the emphasis on strong leadership in leadership theory and most military doctrines. All sections of this article contain guidelines for leadership development, which are briefly summarized in the conclusion.

John Johnston (Jack) Collyer (1870-1941) began his military career with the Cape Mounted Riflemen and saw operational deployments during both the South Africa War (1899-1902), as well as the two African campaigns of the First World War (1914-1918). Collyer had gained valuable military and organisational experience throughout his fifty years of military service in Africa and was considered to be highly talented, well-trained, and above all, battle-hardened. After the unification of South Africa in 1910, the Minister of Defence, Jan Smuts, selected Collyer to help him in the creation of a modern defence force based on western norms. As such Collyer played a vital part in the drawing up of the South African Defence Act and the formation of the Union Defence Force (UDF) during 1910-1912. Collyer served as the chief staff officer to both Louis Botha and Jan Smuts during African campaigns of the First World War, whereafter he assumed the post of adjutant-general (1915-1919) and chief of the general staff of the UDF
(1917-1920). This paper will use Collyer’s career as a lens through which to view the military and organisational development of the UDF during its formative years.

I argue that moral injury in combat veterans can be mitigated by effective small-unit leadership. There are actions that leaders can take before, during, and after their units’ combat deployments that reduce the likelihood and magnitude of morally injurious experiences.

At this time as modern military organisations pursue greater capability via increasing levels of modernisation, digitisation and technological advancement. However, resultant second and third order effects are retarding the pursuit of mastery by junior officers. The Australian Army aspires to levels of connectivity, technical capability and platform lethality never before achieved, but potentially at the cost of disruption to junior officer excellence. Task saturation, intermittent professional fulfilment, paradoxical military culture and a pervasive self-sabotaging arrogance are all factors that in some way influence junior officers. There is an expectation that military professionals unceasingly strive to improve themselves; crucially, self-assessment is expected with subsequent self-study to diminish weakness. Nevertheless, unless command priorities and conditions are geared to energise self-investment and a drive for excellence, disappointing and pervasive mediocrity will endure. Junior officers are being functionally dislocated from achieving optimum development due to organisationally imposed friction points. These points significantly dilute the physical, moral and intellectual conditions permitting the pursuit of professional mastery. Individual responsibility and drive are key, however the creation of an organisational environment that generates the conditions for this is essential. This should not be taken as advocacy for any specific fresh solution or 'innovation', but to highlight and isolate key trends and themes of friction that are at cross-purposes with the Army's declared organisational atmosphere. The key factors are that disrupt a junior officers pursuit of mastery is a lack of professional nourishment and ego-based attitudinal toxicity.

Military Perceptions: Armed Forces on the Move.

Der Sammelband "Armee im Aufbruch" hat in Deutschland zu einer Kontroverse um die Führungsphilosophie der Bundeswehr (Innere Führung) und die Verankerung der Streitkräfte in der Gesellschaft ausgelöst. In diesem Beitrag wird auf Kritiken am Buchband der jungen Offiziere reagiert.

Social aspects are affected by norms related to the distribution of power, being a reflection of inequality manifested in different areas: gender differences and the age, the rules inside the organization, the access to the health systems and education, etc. There are no absolute standards for measuring this dimension. In societies in which this dimension has a high value, social inequality is considered normality, being tolerated until it reaches an unacceptable level. In antithesis the societies in which this dimension has reduced values,social inequality is perceived as something wrong and tends to be revised gradually. Not understanding the relationship in between leadership and different cultural dimensions is a barrier, but not as dangerous as not having enough military skills and competencies. Military should adapt only to cultural phenomenon that are affecting military operations leaving the others the exploitation of cultural elements.

Since the inception of the U.S. Air Force Academy, education in history has had two parallel goals – to educate for life and leadership and to provide knowledge useful in an Air Force career.  All cadets take required core courses in American history, world history, and military history.  This 25th anniversary retrospective reviews the evolution of history courses in the core curriculum; upper-division courses in all three areas; the history major; the cooperative master's degree program; faculty selection and development; and preparation of supplemental teaching materials.  Two members of the Department wrote seminal books on race relations in the Air Force.  Many members deployed to Southeast Asia to prepare CHECO (Contemporary Historical Evaluation of Current Operations) reports.  Biannual military history symposia gathered military historians at the Academy.  And "history education supports a larger process, the formation of military character."  Attached to the chapter is a retrospective by USAF Lieutenant Colonel Bill Astore, "'Serving Two Professions' Revisited," The Falcon Footnote [newsletter]. vol. 8, issue 2, 2002, p. 5.

ACMC has recently produced a leadership film titled 'Leading Together'.  This film features inspiring examples of leaders who are willing to share candidly what they have learned from hard won experience in international crisis response.  It includes interviews with leaders from the United Nations, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), the United States Navy, Australian Army and the World Food Program.

Leading Together will be launched at Australian Parliament House in October and available from October 18. This trailer provides a sneak peek at the practical advice on leadership from some of the world’s most prominent and experienced leaders.

Military Leadership in the 21st Century aims to provide junior commanders or entry-level military officers with an introductory-level appreciation of the key concepts and issues related to military leadership from a social-behavioral science perspective. The book focuses on “direct-level” or “team leadership”. It has three main themes: (1) the human dimension of military operations and organization; (2) the main approaches to direct or team-level leadership, including the trait-approach, values or ethical leadership, and leadership styles and behaviors; and (3) the challenges of leadership in 21st century military operations, organizations, and, the 21st century military profession. Besides learning key leadership-related concepts and issues, readers are also introduced to key events, institutions and social-behavioral scientific research programs that have shaped contemporary military leadership doctrines and systems.