Air Power, Insurgency and the “War on Terror” - Prof. Joel Hayward's ...

The <strong>Air</strong> <strong>Power</strong> Profession: Adaptions to Continuity <strong>and</strong> Change in <strong>the</strong> Strategic Environment
knowledge base. My second section reviews <strong>the</strong>se contending perspectives. My final
section raises questions arising from this debate about air power’s contribution in creating
conditions for <strong>the</strong> defeat of insurgencies.
The Nature of <strong>the</strong> <strong>Air</strong> <strong>Power</strong> Profession
Since <strong>the</strong> publication of Samuel Huntingdon’s The Soldier <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> State <strong>and</strong> Morris
Janowitz’s The Professional Soldier, scholars of civil-military relations have been preoccupied
with <strong>the</strong> nature <strong>and</strong> characteristics of armed services as a distinct professional group. 10
Within this broader literature <strong>the</strong> assumption has been that those organisations tasked
with <strong>the</strong> delivery of air power, primarily but not exclusively national air forces, 11
form a
discrete profession within <strong>the</strong> wider military profession. 12 A myriad of <strong>the</strong>oretical <strong>and</strong>
empirically-based heuristics have attempted to codify military professionalism but three
dominant perspectives have framed <strong>the</strong> debate. 13
The best-known <strong>and</strong> most established perspective delineates professions from o<strong>the</strong>r
occupations in terms of <strong>the</strong>ir achievement of necessary <strong>and</strong> sufficient professional
“traits”. Although analysts have disagreed on <strong>the</strong> relative importance of individual
traits, <strong>the</strong> consensus is that any occupation requires certain attributes to be classified as
a profession. The first requirement is that <strong>the</strong> professional knowledge of <strong>the</strong> occupation
must be founded on a systematic body of <strong>the</strong>ory that is both abstract <strong>and</strong> practical, with
a unifying <strong>the</strong>oretical basis with logical connections between its main parts. The second
is that <strong>the</strong> abstract <strong>and</strong> practical elements making up <strong>the</strong> professional body of knowledge
must generate techniques justified by rules that identify <strong>the</strong> optimum ways to proceed in
a given situation. Third, <strong>the</strong> occupation must enjoy authority based on hard-to-master
professional knowledge, which differentiates <strong>the</strong> professional from <strong>the</strong> lay-person. This
bestows a monopoly of judgement upon <strong>the</strong> profession, which translates into community
sanction in <strong>the</strong> form of autonomy in areas that include recruitment <strong>and</strong> monopoly powers
to practice its skill. Fourth, to be a profession an occupation must be bound by regulatory
codes of ethics that govern <strong>the</strong> relationship between <strong>the</strong> profession <strong>and</strong> client. Finally, <strong>the</strong>
“traits” perspective suggests that professions require a distinct professional culture built
on values <strong>and</strong> norms.
Though debate continues about <strong>the</strong> “state of <strong>the</strong> profession” within <strong>the</strong> “traits” perspective, 16
analysts agree that air power practitioners meet <strong>the</strong> necessary <strong>and</strong> sufficient criteria to be
classified as a profession. This reflects a consensus that <strong>the</strong> air power organisations have
an appropriate body of professional knowledge, <strong>and</strong> possess sophisticated mechanisms to
ensure <strong>the</strong> professionalisation of members which include initial officer indoctrination <strong>and</strong>
socialisation; extensive formal <strong>and</strong> “on-<strong>the</strong>-job” training; comm<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> staff education
programmes; developed decision-making tools <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> codification of professional
knowledge in written doctrine.
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<strong>Air</strong> <strong>Power</strong>, <strong>Insurgency</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> “War on Terror”