What Makes a Military Professional? Evaluating Norm Socialization in West Point Cadets

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X211026355
• Published date: 01 October 2022
• Date: 01 October 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X211026355

Armed Forces & Society

2022, Vol. 48(4) 803 –827

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X211026355

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Article

What Makes a Military

Professional? Evaluating

Norm Socialization in West

Point Cadets

Risa A. Brooks

1

, Michael A. Robinson

2



and Heidi A. Urben

3



Abstract

Scholars have contended that norms of professionalism are critical to understanding

how militaries interact with civilian leaders and when they intervene in politics. Yet, few

studies have directly examined the normative structures of military off‌icers. Through a

survey of 1468 US Military Academy cadets, this study evaluates cadets’views toward

professionalism, and in particular what is often presumed to be the dominant

framework of those norms based on Samuel Huntington’s The Soldier and the State.

We identify f‌ive patterns of normative beliefs based on cadets’views of civil–military

interaction and the nonpartisan ethic: orthodox, unorthodox, inconsistent, non-

committal, and motivated norms. Cadets fall into each of these categories, but ap-

proximatelyone-quarter demonstrate motivatednorms, adhering when convenient,and

otherwise dispensing with them when the rules they prescribe clash with their partisan

identities. These f‌indings, especially our novel conceptualization on norm adherence,

contribute to a greater understanding of military culture and professionalism.

Keywords

military culture, professionalism/leadership, civil–military relations, military effectiveness

1

Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA

2

West Point, NY, USA

3

Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., USA

Corresponding Author:

Heidi A. Urben, Security Studies Program, Georgetown University, 37th and O Streets, NW, Washington,

D.C. 20057-0004, USA.

Email: hau@georgetown.edu

,

804 Armed Forces & Society 48(4)

Introduction

When Samuel Huntington’sThe Soldier and the State was published more than

60 years ago, it represented a milestone in the study of military professionalism.

The book advocated a particular approach to civil–military relations called objective

control whereby a country’s political leadership and military would maintain separate

spheres—one comprised of politics and the other of military activity. From this

structure, Huntington contended, a distinctive apolitical professionalism would or-

ganically emerge within the off‌icer corps. Apolitical professionals would abstain from

participation in partisan politics and sharply limit their roles in decision-making about

the use of force, maintaining a clear division of labor with civilians. This conceptu-

alization proved remarkably inf‌luential, profoundly shaping academic understandings

of military professionalism (Abrahamsson, 1972;Brueneau, 2013;Cohen, 2002;

Feaver, 2003).

Equally important, however, has been Huntington’s purported normative inf‌luence

on the US military’s conception of military professionalism. Huntington’s separation of

spheres concept is seemingly deeply embedded in prevailing normative constructs—

one can hear echoes of it in everything from the military’s conception of “best military

advice”to the regular admonitions to the troops to remain “apolitical”issued by former

Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Ackerman, 2016;Davidson, 2013;Dempsey,

2016;Garramone, 2014;Golby & Karlin, 2018). In short, Huntington’s norms are

widely seen as foundational to the US military’s off‌icer corps today and to underpin

current norms in civil–military relations.

Yet, despite the emphasis placed on military professionalism, relatively little is

known about how deeply internalized are its tenets among off‌icers. Do off‌icers actually

espouse beliefs and endorse behaviors consistent with Huntingtonian professionalism?

While some surveys provide hints that these views are widespread, there is at present no

study that directly focuses on the question of military professionalism.

In this article, we explore what soon-to-be off‌icers in the US Army actually think

about norms of professionalism though an analysis of a survey of nearly 1500 West

Point cadets undertaken in December 2019 and January 2020. Specif‌ically, we in-

vestigate two aspects of the Huntingtonian construct of military professionalism:

interactions between military off‌icers and civilian policymakers in the formulation of

policy and strategy and cadets’views of the military’s relationship to politics and

partisan activity. If Huntingtonian norms are embraced on the f‌irst dimension, cadets

should endorse a clear division of labor between civilian and military leaders, such that

the military abstains from all decisions to commit force, but then is empowered to run

the war as they see f‌it. On the second domain, cadets should view it as inappropriate for

them to engage in partisan activity, and they should view negatively efforts by civilian

politiciansto politicize the military.Conversely,survey responses that indicatethat cadets

either believe they should be making political decisions about the use of force on equal

footing with civilianleaders or that they feel partisan activity is perfectly consistent with

their roles as off‌icers would represent a departure from Huntingtonian norms.

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