Naval leadership and society

Abstract

Tensions between society and the uniformed leaders of the military have produced disastrous results for some democracies. If the peaceful nature of American civil-military relations is to continue through the twenty-first century, a certain level of understanding and shared views need to exist between the military's senior leaders and society. This thesis explores whether senior leaders of the naval service are becoming isolated from society; and, if so, the implications this divide may have on civil-military relations. Three measures of civil- military interaction--racial/ethnic representation, military experience, and shared values--are used to assess the extent of isolation between the nation's naval leaders and society. These measures of interaction are examined with historical and projected statistics on racial/ethnic representation among naval officers, Congressional voting records on defense-related legislation, and interviews with a sample of retired flag and general officers. The results suggest growing isolation and tension between naval leaders and society