Professional Versus Citizen Soldiery

Abstract

Consistent with Samuel Huntington’s separatist thesis in Soldier and the state, the ‘military professional’ is one who pursues expertise in combat in service to a country’s or society’s defense. In this separatist view, such service does not require the solider to be fully integrated with civil society. Professional soldiers in a democratic society also have as part of their organizational ethos a strong disinclination to intervene in politics. Indeed, one finds professional militaries in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere imbued with this separatist, professional ethic but at the same time committed as professionals to respecting constitutional government, institutions, and political processes.