Cart
0
Military leaders need to be smarter
Prior to the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the shift towards competing with China and Russia, military leaders are facing the difficulty of preparing for future conflicts. One of the biggest hurdles is the excessive amount of information that soldiers are facing, which will only make the confusion of war more difficult to navigate. Nonetheless, the U.S. military is placing emphasis on utilizing its greatest asset: its personnel.
In the future, the U.S. military is expected to lose the technological advantage it enjoyed in the post-Cold War era. All communications will either allow soldiers to be located and targeted or decrypted. Artificial intelligence (AI) will rapidly develop enemy courses of action after intercepting messages. Without the right military leaders to add analysis, intuition and experience, commanders will quickly be overwhelmed by the data.
To be ready for the increasing complexity of upcoming battles, the U.S. armed forces need to combat the anti-intellectualism that exists in U.S. culture. This does not imply replacing strong leaders with intelligent ones but rather requiring all leaders to possess both traits. The military should begin to give equal value to academic success and physical fitness scores. By implementing minor changes in policies, significant progress can be made toward achieving this goal.
The first change that needs to happen is to increase the importance of academic evaluation reports (AERs) for professional military education in assigning and promoting company-grade and noncommissioned officers. Currently, motivated lieutenants who work hard and excel in the Basic Officer Leadership Course (BOLC) are not rewarded meaningfully. Captains who graduate at the top of their class enter the same queue for command positions as everyone else.
Second, soldiers should be able to add published professional works to their personnel files. Contributions to professional periodicals such as “Military Review” or branch magazines demonstrate professional stewardship and should be considered during promotions and assignments.
These changes will enable the U.S. to confront its future adversaries with a team of proficient military leaders who were brought up in a culture that values both physical and intellectual abilities. Despite technological advancements, war will always be a human activity, and human decision-making and risk analysis cannot be replaced by technology. While technology can increase the amount of available information in future battles, it will take intelligent and skilled individuals to make use of that information effectively.
