to take your side when you are not sure in the end whether you ’ ll be there to take theirs ?” 5 Those were prescient words . While Kaiser Wilhelm II was planning the Berlin-to-Baghdad railway , Bell was making herself intimately familiar with a great swath of Arabia , from remotest Syria to the waters of the Persian Gulf . Fluent in Persian and Arabic — as well as German and French — she had an uncanny knowledge of regional history . She was also the first female to receive a first class honors in history from Oxford University . Owing to conventions of the time , women were not allowed to matriculate or graduate from university before 1920 . Failing to groom the best people a nation has to offer , regardless of gender , was shortsighted and ultimately inimical to the national interest .
For these reasons and a myriad more , the United States must require the officer corps to be denizens of the bastions of advanced learning wherein that multiplicity of vagaries and propensities of what is called humankind can be studied and analyzed . Only thus can the armed forces of the Nation effectively execute their primary function within society . To neglect this obligation would be anachronistic . Moreover , it would be a dangerous gamble with the future .
The Great Diversity of Intellectual Qualities
Professional military education can be viewed in two general facets . The first is the inculcation and shaping of new officers into an integral part of the larger whole . A new officer is impressionably accepting , malleable even , of the mores and ethos of the profession of arms . The second generally occurs at mid-field-grade ranks such as lieutenant colonel or junior colonel , and increasingly with flag officers , wherein the services ’ war colleges ( and generally for flag officers , civilian universities ) allow for an intellectual maturation of the officer . In the words of Carl von Clausewitz , “ The influence of the great diversity
( Photo courtesy of International Military Forums )
U . S . Marine Corps Gen . James L . Jones , supreme allied commander , Europe , speaks with Belgian NATO Reaction Force soldiers during Exercise Steadfast Jaguar 22 February 2006 in Sao Vicente , Cape Verde . Jones speaks fluent French thanks to a childhood spent mainly in Paris where his father worked for International Harvester . Additionally , he honed his foreign engagement skills by earning a degree from Georgetown University ’ s School of Foreign Service .
of intellectual qualities is felt chiefly in the higher ranks , and increases as one goes up the ladder . It is the primary cause for the diversity of roads to the goal … and for the disproportionate part assigned to the play of probability and chance in determining the course of events .” 6
The challenges facing military officers are prodigious and consequential . Technology , with all that it portends , is just one area of interest . Americans are the consummate experts on focusing on technology to win wars . Research into electromagnetic pulse warfare , information dominance , advanced information technology systems ( susceptible to inexpensive hacking ), and increasingly expensive hardware are but a few examples . In general , Americans are good at technology . It is good U . S . forces continue to enhance expertise in those areas where they have a comparative advantage .
Recall , as well , that if destructive technology amplifies violence , constructive technology amplifies compassion , and the lessons of technology are universal . One of those lessons is that technological teleology is not an accurate yardstick of actual product performance . Is it not ironic , however , that the study and learning , and yes , the entrepreneurial spirit , that have brought forth all these wonders might not have been directed a bit more on the software ? Specifically ,
104 July-August 2016
MILITARY REVIEW