Critical Thinking and Its Discontents

Abstract

Good scholarship asks important questions and provides compelling arguments. Michael W. Mosser's “Puzzles versus Problems: The Alleged Disconnect between Academics and Military Practitioners” is a superb example of such scholarship. Mosser asks if a gap exists between scholars and military practitioners, and if so, what is being done to rectify it. Citing a large and growing body of anecdotal evidence, Mosser concludes that this gap is real. He identifies the source of this gap as “the oppositional nature of the worldviews that each community possesses.” Scholars are interested in explaining puzzles of interest to the academy, while military practitioners are focused on solving policy problems that employ the armed forces as an instrument of national power. However, this gap is more one of degree than scope, and is therefore amenable to reconciliation. Mosser finds that the tenure process for academics is a significant obstacle to such reconciliation. He concludes by identifying several ongoing and proposed initiatives, including the Pentagon's Minerva Project and the Army's operational design concept, to integrate more fully the efforts of academics and military practitioners.