New Dissertation Paper: Norms Over Policy

Retired Army Major Chase Spears, who has written a number of articles on the woke military, has recently completed his dissertation: “Norms over policy: How the military’s apolitical discourse theory drives institutional culture, foments denial of political realities, and undermines service member rights.”

Abstract:

The U.S. military attempts to convey an apolitical institutional identity through its rhetoric and cultural expectations of members, in line with its desire to be viewed as a neutral government agency by military members, the American public, and lawmakers.

However, such an identity is impossible to achieve given the purpose, nature, and conduct of military forces throughout human history. The conduct of warfare is political by nature, imposing the will of one people, state, or nation on another.

The military is authorized, funded, and directed by political representatives. It is a policy-making, policy-enforcing, policy-enabling entity.

The aspiration of the U.S. Department of Defense to hold an apolitical organizational identity as a public institution—and to socialize a belief that its members are as well—might be noble, but is unachievable.

This work explores how the defense department’s apolitical discursive norm came into being, how it is communicated and enforced, and the effect it has on the citizens who serve in today’s all-volunteer force.

It is comprised of three research articles.

The first is a discourse analysis of existing defense department policy governing political expression by military members.

The second study uses open-ended interviews with former military members to gather insight on how military norms are communicated and enforced internally.

The final article uses open-ended interviews with former military members to document the impact that institutional norms have on the civic agency of citizens in military service.

Findings suggest that

1: institutional norms hold greater power over the expressive behavior of military member than defense department policy,

2: the primary means of norms indoctrination is through discursive communication, and

3: that the apolitical institutional norm is enforced through informal systems of social pressure among internal stakeholders.

Read: Norms over policy: How the military’s apolitical discourse theory drives institutional culture, foments denial of political realities, and undermines service member rights (PDF)