Review: Is the U.S. Military Profession in Decline?
This article review examines Richard H. Kohn's "Tarnished Brass: Is the US Military Profession in Decline?" published in Army History (2011). Kohn identifies three core challenges confronting U.S. military professionalism: the need to wage war effectively without squandering limited resources, the importance of political neutrality within the officer corps, and the ethical and moral standards expected of military officers. The review assesses Kohn's credentials as a military historian, evaluates the clarity and strength of his arguments, and reflects on how his framework illuminates the current state of U.S. military culture, leadership, and civil-military relations. The reviewer ultimately recommends the article as a comprehensive and insightful starting point for understanding the profession's ongoing struggles.
- Introduction and Thesis: Overview of Kohn's three core military challenges
- About the Author: Kohn's credentials and scholarly background
- Waging War Effectively and Resource Efficiency: Military must fight wars with minimal resource waste
- Political Neutrality of the Officer Corps: Officers must remain apolitical to serve civilian authority
- Morality, Ethics, and Military Character: Ethics and moral character as foundation of military success
- Overall Assessment and Recommendation: Article praised as insightful and comprehensive analysis
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What makes this paper effective
- The review clearly identifies and addresses each of Kohn's three main arguments in sequence, providing an organized and readable analysis that mirrors the source article's structure.
- The student moves beyond summary to offer genuine personal reflection, particularly on the moral and ethical dimension, connecting Kohn's argument to broader cultural observations.
- Direct quotations from the source are used purposefully to anchor each analytical point, demonstrating proper engagement with primary material.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates how to structure an article review by separating author background, argument summary, and critical reflection into distinct sections. This format allows the writer to establish the source's credibility before evaluating its content, which is a standard and effective technique in academic review writing.
Structure breakdown
The review opens with full citation information and a thesis statement, followed by a bullet-point summary of Kohn's main arguments. It then profiles the author's credentials before moving into an extended analytical reflection on each of the three problems Kohn identifies. The paper closes with an overall recommendation supported by commentary on the article's evidence and scope. This clean, section-based structure makes the review easy to follow and assess.
Introduction and Thesis
Article reviewed: Kohn, Richard H. "Tarnished Brass: Is the US Military Profession in Decline?" Army History 78 (2011): 27–31.
Thesis: To face the enemy today, the U.S. 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 the author:
First, 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)."1
Second, there 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."2
Third, the problem facing U.S. 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."3
About the Author
Richard H. Kohn is an expert in the field of military history. He is a tenured professor of history and has served as the head of Air Force history for the United States Air Force from 1981 to 1991. 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, 1789–1989,4 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 2001.5 He has written numerous academic articles on the military, civil-military relations, and American culture. He is a well-known figure in the military studies field and an accomplished scholar and academic.
Waging War Effectively and Resource Efficiency
In his article "Tarnished Brass: Is the US Military Profession in Decline?", Richard H. Kohn discusses three major problems facing the U.S. military profession: the need to develop and maintain the ability to wage war successfully, the absence of partisan political divisions in the officer corps, and the moral and ethical conduct of officers. By focusing on each of these three problems, Kohn provides a useful framework for understanding the major issues confronting the U.S. military today.
The first problem Kohn addresses is the need for the military to develop and maintain the ability to wage war successfully without wasting lives, equipment, and supplies. In other words, the military must be able to fight and win wars while minimizing casualties and preserving limited resources. As Kohn explains, the military must find ways to accomplish its objectives with the minimum amount of resources possible while still maintaining its effectiveness. This requires a focus on cost-effectiveness and resource optimization. Achieving this objective might involve prioritizing investments in areas critical to mission success and reducing investments in areas of lesser importance — the overall point being that the military currently operates with too much waste.
Bibliography
Feaver, Peter, Peter Douglas Feaver, and Richard H. Kohn, eds. Soldiers and Civilians: The Civil-Military Gap and American National Security. MIT Press, 2001.
Kohn, Richard H. "Tarnished Brass: Is the US Military Profession in Decline?" Army History 78 (2011): 27–31.
Rohr, John A., and Richard H. Kohn. "The United States Military under the Constitution of the United States, 1789–1989." Naval War College Review 47, no. 2 (1994): 19.
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