In the Ranks: Making Sense of Military Morale
In the Ranks: Making Sense of Military Morale by Raphael S. Cohen, World Affairs Journal
In its 2011 annual survey, the Center for Army Leadership asked soldiers to respond to a seemingly innocuous statement: “The Army is headed in the right direction to prepare for the challenges of the next 10 years.” Only 26 percent of those on active duty agreed—an all-time low in the history of this survey. The report caused ripples well beyond the Army community. News outlets—from NBC News to the Boston Globe—ran stories about the Army’s crisis of confidence and
overall military morale.The results were as puzzling as they were troubling. At the time of the survey, the Iraq War was over and Afghanistan seemed to be winding down. Threats like those posed by the Islamic State and Russia had yet to gain widespread public attention. The Budget Control Act of 2011, also known as “sequestration”—which mandated significant cuts to the Army’s budget—had not gone into full effect.
Moreover, declining morale is not unique to the Army; it runs across the services and even across countries…
