Military Professionalism - United States Air Force Academy

Lyall, Sarah. “European Court Tells British to Let Gay Soldiers Serve.” The New
York Times (Sept. 28, 2010): 8.
The unanimous decision by the European court, based in Strasbourg, France, means that
Britain will almost certainly be forced to allow openly gay men and women into the
military for the first time. “Politically the government, which has made human rights part
of its manifesto, cannot be seen to be ignoring the policy of the European court,” said Di
Luping, a lawyer for Liberty, a human rights organization. She took to the court the case
of two people who were discharged from the military when their homosexuality was
discovered. The Defense Ministry, which responded to the legalization of homosexuality
in Britain some 30 years ago by forbidding gay men and lesbians to serve in the armed
forces, said that as a result of the ruling, it would halt pending disciplinary cases
involving military personnel suspected of being gay. But beyond that, it said the
government would have to review the decision and decide how to proceed.
Mackay, Andrew and Steve Tatham. Behavioral Conflict: From General to Strategic
to Corporal: Complexity, Adaptation and Influence. Shrivenham, U.K.: Defence
Academy of the United Kingdom: The Shrivenham Papers 9 (Dec. 2009).
http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/arag/documentlistings/monographs/091216%20FINAL.pdf
U.S. General Martin Dempsey said that in the future military power will be measured in
terms of the ability of a force to adapt. The authors believe that the British Ministry of
Defense must give the capacity to adapt greater attention and should promote strategic
thinking. The behaviorist approach will be more effective than kinetic power at
undermining the enemy’s will to continue fighting.
McCartney, Helen. “The Military Covenant and the Civil-Military Contract in
Britain.” International Affairs 86.2 (Mar. 2010): 411-428.
Through assessing the extent to which the reciprocal expectations of the armed forces and
the British public are realized, this article will argue that the moral contract, although
under stress, is not breaking. Underlying social trends and the use of doctrinal concepts
such as the military covenant have, combined with recent operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan, altered the expectations of both sides causing tensions within militarysocietal
relations. Yet, while the armed forces do harbor unrealized expectations of the
British public who are unwilling or unable to support the use of the military in recent
conflicts, neither the public nor the military is so disillusioned with the performance of
the other for the relationship to be described as breaking or broken.
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