Article Review
Kohn, Richard H. "Tarnished Brass: Is the US Military Profession in Decline?."Army History78 (2011): 27-31.
Thesis: To face the enemy today, the US military needs to consider the intellectual, political, and moral challenges that have prevented it from achieving success on the battlefield, in recruiting and retaining personnel, and in maintaining its authority around the world.
Main Arguments by Author:
The military needs to develop and maintain the ability to wage war successfully in a variety of circumstances without wasting the lives of soldiers or their equipment and supplies (which are always limited, even for a superpower at the zenith of its relative strength).[footnoteRef:1] [1: Kohn, Richard H. "Tarnished Brass: Is the US Military Profession in Decline?."Army History78 (2011), 27.]
Another problem is the absence from the officer corps of partisan political divisions, its subordination to the legally constituted civilian authorities in charge of the state, and its ability to establish an effective working partnership or collaboration with the civilian political leadership regardless of party or faction.[footnoteRef:2] [2: Kohn, Richard H. "Tarnished Brass: Is the US Military Profession in Decline?."Army History78 (2011), 27.]
The third problem facing US military professionalism is moral and ethical: the honor, integrity, honesty, and self-sacrifice of the officer corps, the commitment of individual officers to the norms and values of personal and organizational behavior that permit them to lead, and their subordinates to follow, in the heat and stress of battle.[footnoteRef:3] [3: Kohn, Richard H. "Tarnished Brass: Is the US Military Profession in Decline?."Army History78 (2011), 27.]
Who is the author? Academic/work background? Other writings?
Richard H. Kohn is an expert in the field of military history. He is a tenured professor...
Kohn has also edited and co-edited several books on American military history, including "The United States Military under the Constitution of the United States, 17891989"[footnoteRef:4] published by New York University Press in 1991, and "Soldiers and Civilians: The Civil-Military Gap and American National Security" published by MIT Press in 2001.[footnoteRef:5] He has also written numerous
academic articles on the military, civil-military relations, and
American culture. He is a well-known name in the military studies field and an accomplished scholar and academic. [4: Rohr, John A., and Richard H. Kohn. "The United States Military...
…south in terms of how it compares to traditional standards of decency, morality, ethics, and family values. Many people today seem to be operating from a standpoint of
egoism rather than from a standpoint of
virtue ethics or duty ethics. Egoism is simply rationalized selfishness.
Kohn's argument is clear, convincing, insightful, and eloquently articulated. It is well-supported, drawing on a variety of historical examples to illustrate his points. Overall, I would recommend this article as a thoughtful and insightful analysis of the challenges facing the US military profession. It provides a useful framework for understanding the role and responsibilities of military officers, and highlights the importance of maintaining high standards of professionalism and ethical conduct. The emphasis on morality and ethics is the key to the whole overarching dilemma, I would say. It is that key that really deserves more focus, but this article is a great start. It is comprehensive and gives a good overview of the problem from the macro perspective with many insights and illustrations. The illustrations always serve to deepen the points that he makes, and they serve as excellent anecdotal evidence as well, giving more weight to his arguments.
Bibliography
Feaver, Peter, Peter Douglas Feaver, and Richard H. Kohn,…
