Moral Competence for the Joint Warfighter: The Missing Element in Defense Transformation

Authors: Jr Price John F.; NATIONAL DEFENSE UNIV NORFOLK VA JOINT FORCES STAFF COLL

Abstract:

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) is currently engaged in a massive effort to transform America's military for the challenges of the 21st century. This transformation effort is focused on making structural, intellectual, and cultural changes to the world's greatest military force, but it has neglected the one area of change essential to military success in the information age: moral transformation. An individual and organizational moral transformation is required because the United States Military, the cornerstone of America's preeminent world position, is suffering from an insidious internal decay which threatens its warriors, the heart of the profession of arms, and the nation's future security. The Core Values revolution of the 1990s has failed to have any significant impact on this institutional malaise and now only serves to create a false sense of security regarding the institution's moral condition. The current moral condition of the Services is the result of inadequate individual moral development for America's warriors and the combination of institutional apathy and cultural duplicity. The general acknowledgement of the need for moral aptitude by Service leadership has not generated sufficient change in the shallow, disconnected programs currently in existence. This institutional abdication of moral responsibility and failures to correct cultural problems directly undermines the moral competence of the joint warrior, which can have significant negative impacts on trust and confidence in the organization, the establishment of domestic and international support, and operational effectiveness. In line with current DoD Transformation efforts, it is time to initiate a Joint Ethical Transformation Campaign to improve moral competence and ethical cultures within all of the Services.

Limitations:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE