Apparently not thr US military.
"Critical thinking" has long been a buzz phrase of US higher education. There was a time when I could not hear a speech by a higher administrative person at my or other higher ed institutions that did not tout critical thinking as a really important goal of higher ed. We were all supposed to be teaching it all the time. I got a bit tired of these incessant speeches, but in fact I agreed with that and continue to. I have not heard these speeches for some time, but critical thinking remains officially a goal in widespread statements in writing throughout higher ed.
However this may be changing in a disturbing part of higher ed. I was at a dinner in Washington last evening. Attending this was someone who teaches at the National Defense University who reported on what I consider a disturbing development there. Apparently this commonplace of having critical thinking being a goal of higher ed was in place officially at the NDU. However, after "Mad Dog" Mattis resigned, the Chair of the Joint Chiefs replaced the Commandant of the NDU. The new Commandant has made a big deal of getting rid of this goal and replacing it with an emphasis on training for "war execution."
Apparently the push on this from the new Commandant has been so intense that it led to a large pushback from the faculty at the NDU. Aside from stated dissenting views, apparently 15 members of the NDu faculty have resigned over this in protest (not including my interlocuter, who nevertheless sides with those resigning over this). So our military is now to be trained just to fight wars, but without doing any thinking about it.
Something making this more important is that there have been large cuts in the budget of the State Department, with a large reduction in diplomatic personnel. This means that the military increasingly will be performing diplomatic functions. But rather than being trained for that or any sort of peacemaking or, well, thinking, the military is being pushed towards mindless war fighting.
Barkley Rosser
You are certainly right to be appalled by dumbing down the military and defunding diplomacy. But, is this in any way, shape or form a new story? It seems like an established pattern of practice at least 15 years in duration. I am ready to believe it is getting worse, but there is something vaguely disturbing about failing to acknowledge that the consequences of such policy choices have been manifest for quite some time.
ReplyDeleteReally excellent report and commentary.
ReplyDeleteBruce Wilder:
ReplyDeleteYou are certainly right to be appalled by dumbing down the military and defunding diplomacy. But, is this in any way, shape or form a new story? It seems like an established pattern of practice at least 15 years in duration....
[ I agree completely. ]
Yes, it has been going on for some time, although some might argue that it may have been going on for much longer than that. I mean the Vietnam War was not run nearly as intelligently as say WW II. Anyway, this latest development certainly indicates the phenomenon reaching some new critical point of seriousness, especially given the spate of resignations it has apparently triggered.
ReplyDeleteThe invasion of Iraq appears to me to have begun an especially myopic time in military terms, a time we are still passing through. What thoughtful officer could directly work for Bush-Cheney or Trump?
ReplyDeleteWhich commandant? (NWC or ES?)
ReplyDeleteAlan,
ReplyDeleteI do not know. I was not told names and did not ask, but the change was very recent.