The Military Professional as Successful Politician

The world of national security policymaking is bewildering to purposeful military professionals. Socialized as they have been in field units where norms of rationality, efficiency, and undiluted authority are predominant, professionals find Washington politics, if not repugnant, at least disorienting. The environment there is enormously complex, formed by a mind-boggling array of political institutions, public agencies, interest groups, and powerful individuals both inside and outside the government pursuing a variety of goals. For the professional in this realm of national security policymaking, success is a matter of passionate concern. "Success" is perceived in many different ways. For some professionals, it is defined in their own self-interest, that is, as promotion, prestige, higher income, and prospects for later employment outside the service. For others, it is the recognition that comes from advancing the interests of their organization. For still others, success is a sense of gratification that occurs with the promotion of the national interest, however that may be defined. Finally, many professionals are likely to perceive success as the happy coincidence of all these goals. What follows is a description of the environment in which national security policymaking occurs and some of the successful strategies employed by military professionals in this realm. Our intent is to stimulate national security professionals to think creatively about success and about strategies for achieving it. The strategies for success examined here are as follows: accepting environmental constraints, respecting the process, advancing the organization, developing interpersonal skills, learning to negotiate, communicating the organizational vision, and maintaining ethical balance.
Published in Parameters: U.S. Army War College Quarterly, v18 p37-51, Mar 1988.