OXFORD UNIVERSITY

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OXFORD UNIVERSITY
ARMED FORCES Amateurs, Conscripts, Citizens or
Professionals? Dr Patrick Mileham
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CCW
Changing Characterof Armed Forces
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INHIBITING FACTORS

• Lack of understanding of attainable professional
  standards.
• Political resistance to defence reform.
• Unhealthy internal military cultures/relationships
  .
• National political culture of distaste for
  military service.
• Bureaucratic inertia supporting civil
  institutions.
• Perceived wastage of national resources assigned
  to defence.
• Armed Forces roles other than for military
  purposes.
• Lack of resources for national security.
• Low reputation of Armed Forces in civil
  population.

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PROFESSION OF ARMS 1
The essential basis of the military life is the
ordered application of force under an unlimited
liability. It is the unlimited liability which
sets the man who embraces this life somewhat
apart. He will be (or should be) always a
citizen. So long as he serves he will never be a
civilian. Hackett 1983
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MILITARY COVENANT
the legal right and duty to fight and if
necessary, kill, according to their orders, and
an unlimited liability to give their lives in
doing so. ADP5 Soldiering 2000
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PROFESSION OF ARMS 2
The officer is endowed with the power of
coercion. In a society of free men this power
cannot be safely bestowed on those who do not
possess sufficient detachment and liberality of
mind to use it wisely.
Hackett 1961
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UNIVERSAL MILITARYPROFESSION 1

• Objective control by civil authorities, who are
  themselves professionally and democratically
  led.
• Well conceived and fully developed doctrines,
  from which all military activity flows.
• Mature and responsible relationships with other
  national and international security and defence
  institutions and agencies.
• Fully comprehensive force design, allocated
  resources and infrastructures.
• Appropriate technological and technical expertise
  developed to a high standard.
• Highly trained and well educated armed forces
  personnel.
• Objective quantitative and qualitative
  performancemeasurement systems and processes.

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UNIVERSAL MILITARYPROFESSION 2

• Supportive and understanding reciprocal
  relationship with civil population, enabling
  regeneration.
• Voluntary basis of military service, workable
  contracts and terms of service.
• Corporate ethos of discipline and
  self-discipline.
• Healthy internal relationships in the hierarchy
  of ranks, based on effective leadership.
• High ethical standing, morale and reputation,
  resultant on performance.