Military Morale Research Articles

Sustaining Lamentation for Military Moral Injury: Witness Poetry that Bears the Traces of Extremity

Witness poetry offers unique ways to recognize and lament the wounds of war. Poet Carolyn Forche defines poems of witness as those that “bear the trace of extremity within them, and they are, as such, evidence of what occurred” (1993, p. 30). Witness poetry, written in response to and in conditions of extremity (utmost suffering and intense struggle), can help recognize and lament the grievous losses of moral injury in ways no other genre of literature can. Leaders in faith communities can draw upon witness poetry to recognize war-related losses and to facilitate lamentation with the expectation of finding ways to live with moral injury in the context of small groups of military service members, veterans, and their families.

The Study on the Article 92-6 of the Military Criminal Act

군형법 제92조의6 추행죄는 그 구성요건이 불명확하여 군 사법기관이 자의적으로 해석할 여지가 많고, ‘군 공동사회의 건전한 생활과 군기 보호’라는 본래의 입법취지와 달리 친고죄 규정으로 인한 처벌의 공백을 막기 위한 용도로 활용되거나, 추행행위의 강제성 인정여부가 불확실한 사건에서 활용되는 등 적용과정에서도 여러 문제를 안고 있다. 따라서 동성 간 모든 성적 행위를 처벌대상으로 규정하고 있는 현행 군형법상의 추행죄를 폐지하고, ‘위계･위력에 의한 추행행위’ 처벌 조항을 신설하여 추행죄 사건의 대부분을 차지하고 있는 지위･계급 등 위계관계에 의한 추행 사안을 처리하는 것이 바람직하다. 다만 이성･동성을 불문하고 합의에 의한 성적 행위라 하더라도 군의 공동생활이나 군기에 부정적인 영향을 미칠 수 있는 경우에만 징계처분으로 규제하는 방안을 마련해야 한다.Article 92-6 of the Military Criminal Law is controversial because the configuration requirements are unclear and there is a big possibility for arbitrary interpretation by the military judiciary. Unlike the original legislative purpose of ‘protecting the healthy life and security of the military community’, it can be used to prevent the blankness of the punishment caused by the personal complaints, or to be used in uncertain cases whether or not the enforcement action is uncertain, so it has a lot of problems. Therefore, instead of prohibiting and punishing homosexual activity in the armed forces, a clause for punishment of the indecent act by hierarchy or power should be newly established. However, it is necessary to prepare disciplinary measures only in cases where the sexual act caused by the same-sex agreement is externally overexposed and has a negative effect on the military life and the military morale.

International regulations related to naval mines and protection of navigation

The free movement of people and goods is one of the fundamental values of the European Union. Nowadays, the security environment out of Territorial waters is changing its characteristics. The statute of any military action in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) becomes more sensitive than ever. The use of naval mines is demanding adequate responsibility so that to correspond to trends in maritime security. It is vital, the perception for laying off mines at sea to be placed impartially between international legislation and military morale inspired by inherent civilization values, adequate to requirements of Geneva Conventions and United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS-82) in respect with human rights. The Convention relative to the laying of automatic submarine contact mines (Hague VIII) is an example that there are some needs for regulation of the use of naval mines at sea. Moreover, the significance of the Hague VIII Convention released in 1907 is more or less melting. UNCLOS-82 doesn`t treat the use of naval mines in details, so there is certain vacuum in regulation of those security aspects. The existence of sound and transparent principles is extremely important for building firm trust and mutual understanding between coastal states.

Military Moral Injury: An Evidence-Based and Intercultural Approach to Spiritual Care

How can spiritual care help veterans struggling with military moral injury? An evidence-based, intercultural approach to spiritual care is proposed. Evidence-based care uses research on military moral injury and religious and spiritual struggles to understand when religious and spiritual practices, beliefs, and values are helping or harming veterans. Intercultural spiritual care recognizes the complex, distinctive ways veterans’ values, beliefs, coping, and spiritual practices are shaped by interacting cultural systems, especially military training and cultures. Pastoral theologian Larry Graham’s (Sacred Spaces: The E-Journal of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors 5, 146–171, 2017) writing on moral injury and lamentation is used to develop two spiritual care strategies: sharing anguish and interrogating suffering. Spiritual care begins with lamenting the shared anguish of moral injury using intrinsically meaningful spiritual practices to help veterans compassionately accept the emotions arising from moral injury so intensely felt in their bodies. The second strategy is sharing the lament of interrogating suffering through exploring values, beliefs, and coping arising from moral injury. A literary case study of a young female veteran based on Cara Hoffman’s (2014) novel Be Safe, I Love You illustrates this evidence-based intercultural approach to spiritual care of military moral injury.

The factors of SNS Characteristics and Organizational Culture Affecting Military Morale

The factors of SNS Characteristics and Organizational Culture Affecting Military Morale

The Lady in White: British Imperial Loyalism and Women’s Volunteerism in Second World War Durban

Perla Siedle Gibson, known as ‘The Lady in White’, was an upper-class woman from Durban, who in the Second World War became famous for appearing in the city’s harbour and singing to the numerous British and South African soldiers and sailors who passed through. The article shows how Gibson’s activities illuminate several aspects of South Africa’s, and especially Natal’s, role in the war. The strategic situation in the period 1940–3 made South African ports crucial to the British campaigns in North Africa and East Asia. The article demonstrates that women’s volunteerism in Durban played a key part in sustaining military morale in this period, and thereby contributes to a gendered reading of the politics of the war. It also emphasises the specificity of Natal settler loyalism in framing the activities of Gibson and her co-workers: white Natalians had a particularly strong sense of connection to Britain, and an ambivalent relationship to the South African state. Finally, the article points out how racial tensions were building in this period, in ways which would lead to internal crisis in the country and international isolation by the 1960s. This would ultimately undermine the Natal-British identity for which Gibson stood.

“Turn Now, My Vindication Is at Stake”: Military Moral Injury and Communities of Faith

The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze how communities of faith can overcome key barriers and fulfill their responsibility to respond to the moral injury of military veterans and military families. Moral injury is a concept within the broader discourse concerning traumatic experiences and responses that pertains particularly to experiences that overwhelm a person’s internalized moral covenant within their social relational world. Communities of faith offer unique resources for many veterans and military families in the process of transitioning into civilian life. However, limited understanding of military experiences and culture and discomfort with moral anguish, including intense forms of guilt, shame, disgust, and contempt as well as traumatic experiences more broadly, too often diminish the efficacy of such ministries with veterans and military families.

Letting the Troops Loose: Pillage, Massacres, and Enslavement in Early Tang Warfare

By analyzing examples ranging from the Sui-Tang transition to the An Lushan Rebellion, I argue that in a practice known as “letting the troops loose,” Tang generals frequently rewarded their officers and soldiers (and themselves) for a victory with the freedom to seize the wives, children, and property of the defeated with impunity, and to kill any who resisted. Attempts to censure or prosecute the generals responsible were rare and usually overruled, because military morale was seen as a higher priority than discipline or humaneness. Tang generals were also authorized to massacre surrendered enemy soldiers and conquered civilians for a range of strategic purposes. Moreover, taking slaves from a defeated population was a common prerogative among generals and officers even when an army was not “let loose.” When generals refrained from pillage, massacres, and enslavement, therefore, this was usually for reasons that were pragmatic and strategic, not moral or legal.

Influences of Job Training upon Military Morale and Organizational Performance

Influences of Job Training upon Military Morale and Organizational Performance

Biblical echoes in two Byzantine military speeches

This article examines the two extant military speeches attributed to Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos for their biblical references and allusions. These speeches demonstrate imperial Byzantine exegesis, establish biblical grounds for the ‘chosen’ status of Byzantine Christians, and reveal that the non-soldierly emperor Constantine VII appropriated the role of a mediating priestly figure as a way of claiming authority over his fighting forces. In this, he follows in the footsteps of his father, the emperor Leo VI (r. 886–912). Both speeches are explicitly Christian, and were used to bolster military morale and to reinforce imperial authority.

The US Militarys Department Store - The Military Exchanges: Should They Be Replaced By Commercial Retailers?

The mission of the military exchange program is to (1) provide quality merchandise to military members and their families worldwide at competitive prices, and (2) generate income to support military morale, welfare, and recreation (MWR) programs. In overseas locations the military exchanges provide military members and their families with familiar competitively-priced, top-quality American products and services, priced in US dollars. The military exchanges are agencies of the US Department of Defense (DOD). The exchanges are tax free stores. This tax advantage, in concert with the exchanges competitive pricing, helps make the products and services offered affordable for military members on their all-too-often meager salaries. Profits from the military exchanges are channeled to MWR programs benefiting military personnel and their families worldwide. However, could and should military exchange functions be contracted to commercial businesses that are actually in the business of retail? The purpose of DOD is national defense, not retail sales and the related logistics. While the original need for establishing a military-operated exchange program was valid many years ago when the commercial sector was not capable supporting worldwide military operations and operating locations, is that still the case? Could a negotiated contract with a major commercial retailer provide service members and their families with better products, at better prices, and with better service, all at reduced cost to the US government, hence reduced cost the US taxpayers?

Suicidal ideation modulates the reduction in serotonin transporter availability in male military conscripts with major depression: A 4-[18F]-ADAM PET study

Objectives. Suicide is an important issue in the military service, since it can influence military morale and create dangerous situations for other personnel. The serotonin transporter (SERT) has been suggested to be involved in the pathophysiology of depression and suicidal behaviours. The aims of this study were to examine whether the brain SERT availability differs between military conscripts with depression and control subjects, and whether suicidal ideation is correlated with SERT availability. Methods.We used N,N-dimethyl-2-(2-amino-4-[18F]-fluorophenylthio)benzylamine (4-[18F]-ADAM) as a radioligand for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. All participants completed the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSS) prior to PET imaging. Results. The effect of major depression and BSS scores had an interaction on SERT availability. After adjusting for the BSS score, subjects with depression had lower SERT availability than control subjects (F1,17 = 23.85, P < 0.001). A positive correlation between SERT availability and BSS scores was observed in the depression group (F1,8 = 30.67, P = 0.001). The status of depression and intensity of suicidal ideation exert opposite effects on SERT availability. Conclusions. The extent of suicidal ideation may moderate the reduction effect in SERT binding observed in major depression in male military conscripts.

Military Ethics and Moral Blame across Agency Lines

ABSTRACTIn this article, I examine the extent to which military officers are morally responsible for the actions of others by virtue of shared membership in various groups. I argue that career military officers share membership in morally relevant groups that include their branch of service, Department of Defense and the entire Executive Branch of Government, and I outline the circumstances under which career officers bear moral culpability for the actions of members of this group. A number of implications arise from these findings. The first and most important is that military officers have an interest in ensuring the moral rectitude of government agents specifically as it pertains to their official capacities. Additionally, military officers have a duty not only to be informed about problematic government policies but also to educate themselves on the pertinent legal jurisprudence or ethical considerations. Finally, the Constitutional Paradigm of Military Ethics may be an insufficient guide for the particular sort of moral dilemma dealt with in this article.

Strikt functioneel: over de militaire ervaring met het organiseren van de terugtocht

The military is generally considered to act as a professional when it comes to retreating forces from military battleground or international conflict areas. At the same time recent national experiences with the withdrawal of national troops from international peacekeeping operations are filled with disappointments and crises. In this article the authors question the idea that these disappointments and crises are simply due to problems of reduced military competence or military morale. They argue that the military is still the alleged expert who knows how to perform military retreats and other military actions. At the same time they show that network-like decision-making structures that are inherent to the deployment of troops in international peacekeeping missions, have become a major obstacle for the military to act in its own right. The lessons that government can learn from the military experience are firstly, that decisions for national public cutbacks should be accompanied by a more in-depth (re)consideration of public (key) tasks than up to now was considered appropriate, and secondly, that more trust should be shown in the skills, knowledge and motivation of professionals to delineate and constrain the boundaries of their own fields of expertise.

The Confederate Heartland: Military and Civilian Morale in the Western Confederacy

The Confederate Heartland: Military and Civilian Morale in the Western Confederacy

Book Review: International Relations: Empowering Our Military Conscience: Transforming Just War Theory and Military Moral Education

Book Review: International Relations: Empowering Our Military Conscience: Transforming Just War Theory and Military Moral Education

Military Romance: American Soldiers and Foreign War Brides in the Twentieth Century

The American soldier has perhaps been the most enduring U.S. export since the turn of the twentieth century, with no end in sight. Americans have fought wars on foreign soil, occupied countries, and built permanent military installations all over the world. Currently about a quarter of the country's active duty personnel is stationed on military bases scattered around the globe. For better or worse, these troops have helped shape America's image abroad. In the past, political leaders have hailed them as “ambassadors for democracy,” as was the case in Germany and Japan after World War II. But they have also expressed concern about America's international reputation when soldiers engaged in misconduct abroad, as occurred with increasing frequency during the 1970s when military morale was at its lowest in the aftermath of the Vietnam war and drug addiction, alcoholism, and violent crime were on the rise. Host countries, in turn, have welcomed American troops as liberators or shunned them as imperialist invaders. U.S. military occupations in the aftermath of war have created strong resistance movements (the Philippines), cemented lasting positive relationships (Germany, Japan), and divided the country (Afghanistan, Iraq). The establishment of a worldwide system of U.S. military bases in the aftermath of World War II offered opportunities for cross-cultural interaction but also disrupted the political, economic, and cultural coherence of local communities.

Empowering Our Military Conscience. Transforming Just War Theory and Military Moral Education, Roger Wertheimer (dir.), 2010, coll. Military and Defence Ethics, Burlington, VT, Ashgate, 207 p.

Empowering Our Military Conscience. Transforming Just War Theory and Military Moral Education, Roger Wertheimer (dir.), 2010, coll. Military and Defence Ethics, Burlington, VT, Ashgate, 207 p.

Just War and Military Morale: A Brief Reflection on the Correlation Between the Legality of War and the Moral Repercussions for Members of US and UK Forces Arising from the Questionable Legality of the Campaign Iraqi Freedom of March 2003

Does it matter to a member of the military whether the military campaign in which he is taking part is lawful or not? Despite the observation that the crime of aggression (post Kampala 2010) constitutes a ‘leadership crime par excellence,’ which limits any (future) criminal responsibility accordingly, the legality or illegality of any military action under international law can create moral implications for the common foot soldier and mid-level officer and also have a tangible impact on the national legal frameworks under which these forces operate. This short article uses the example of Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003) to discuss the repercussions of a—most likely—illegal military campaign for individual members of democratic armed forces before the background of the present discussion of NATO led action in Libya.

The Changing Role of Protestant Military Chaplaincy in Germany: from Raising Military Morale to Praying for Peace1

Focusing on Lutheran chaplaincy, I argue that the German Protestant Church expects chaplains to be the moral conscience of the army. To facilitate this role, and to ensure that the chaplains' own consciences are never again blunted by their environment, the chaplaincy is designed to prevent clergy from becoming too closely integrated into the military. Chaplains are structurally outside the chain of command and have no military rank; their terms of service are restricted to between six and 12 years. Their role is to sharpen the consciences of individual soldiers, and to ask whether the military operations in which the Bundeswehr participates are actually conducive to peace or whether they add to the spiral of violence. This structural separation is not total, however. The Christian churches are still privileged by law in Germany, and the military's exclusively Christian chaplains are obliged to deliver compulsory ethical training to all soldiers irrespective of their professed faith (or atheism). I also argue that the challenge will be to maintain a prophetic ministry (shaped in armed forces which were created for defensive engagements only, and which did not engage in combat operations until 1995) now that German chaplains are once again supporting soldiers engaged in battlefield action. Promoting the civilian churches' peace ethic necessarily leads to conflict with secular politicians and military leaders. Even in conditions designed to strengthen their primary allegiance to their sending churches, military chaplains may feel conflicted when the soldiers they support are criticised by clergy ‘outside’.