The Role of Masculinity in Military Effectiveness and Lethality

By Dr. Meaghan Mobbs, USMA 2008, Former Army Captain
Independent Women’s Center for Safety and Security Director
Recently appointed by the President to serve on West Point’s Board of Visitors

The military’s primary function—defeating enemies—requires traditionally masculine traits like aggression, resilience, stoicism, and physical dominance.

Recent cultural movements mislabeling masculinity as toxic and reorienting the military to prioritize inclusivity threaten combat effectiveness and  readiness.

To maintain military lethality, the U.S. must reaffirm masculinity within military training, standards, and ethos, emphasizing psychological and biological realities— ensuring forces remain prepared to confront adversaries decisively and successfully.

INTRODUCTION

The military’s primary function is to provide for our national defense by defeating enemies with overwhelming force. Lethality—defined as the capability and capacity to destroy—is the military’s core metric for success.

Historically, it has been men who have waged war. Therefore, it is unsurprising that the traditional characteristics of men—physical toughness, aggression, dominance, and stoicism—are viewed as essential to battlefield success and, ultimately, to maintaining national security.

Unfortunately, over the last two decades, there has been a rise in associating masculinity with toxicity and affiliated movements encouraging men to disregard more traditional masculinity.

Such movements have insisted men should “cry more” and, in general, eschew the aforementioned traditional masculine traits. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with men crying. However, the explicit encouragement to disregard adaptive masculine traits carries broader societal danger and presents challenges for fielding an effective fighting force and winning our nation’s wars.

This is particularly concerning today as the world becomes more dangerous, and America must be prepared for full-scale war against a near-peer aggressor, like China or Russia.

Masculinity in warfare is not merely a social construct to be deconstructed during a college seminar but a fundamental reality that must be upheld to protect and defend our country and her allies. . . . .

Read the rest: Policy Focus: The Role of Masculinity in Military Effectiveness and Lethality (PDF)