A Myth Called Scholar Warrior

Leadership and Learning are indispensable to each other - John F Kennedy

When quizzed by a young officer about what an officer should aim for in his professional career, an Army Commander once remarked “Up to the rank of Major you should aim to excel in professional military courses. As a Commanding Officer, you should be uncompromising on integrity. As you rise higher up the echelon, your singular aim should be development of higher intellect.” Well, whether or not the Army Commander was successful in explaining his vision for the officer cadre is a question in itself, but his words can’t be ignored.

Transformation: A Bridge Too Far?

Transformation envisaged nearly a decade back was conceptualised with an aim towards reforming the organisation by embracing change. However, one aspect of the transformation was to enhance the professional military education for “Scholar Warriors” and “Thinking Soldiers” seems to have remained unexecuted so far. Scholar warriors being a term directed towards the Officer Cadre and “Thinking Soldiers” for Junior Commissioned Officers and Other Ranks.

The study carried out by ARTRAC on Human Resources attempted to address the deficit of strategic culture but fell short of listing out solutions for enhancing organizational intellect. In addition, the army figures do not support the fact that the concept of transformation in relation to intellectual development has been understood, propagated or executed in right earnest. This article aims to focus on the aspect of transformation in specific reference to higher education amongst the officer cadre.

Review of Intellectual Development and Decision Making at Strategic Level

Decision making at the strategic level is a way lot different from the tactical and operational level. Strategic leadership requires a larger skill set than leadership practiced at lower levels. Success in operations at the tactical and operational level, for many years, has been the sole identifier of suitable candidates for selection and promotions for positions at the strategic level. However, in order to comprehensively understand the capabilities of resources of their command, strategic leaders must rely on a broad base of experience, both in and out of the army in order to successfully accomplish the mission. Unaware of strategic aspects, they run the risk of non-utilization of diplomatic, informational and economic resources that could turn out be the thin line between failure and success. The reasons as to why we lack tools for intellect development are analysed below:-

• Lack of Civilian or Retired Faculty

A culture has been developed within the officer corps of our Army, discouraging educational assignments outside the existing system. Professional military courses which are run in a military environment, where teaching by military instructors rather than learning by student is more prominent. Other armies have included experienced civilian academicians and retired officers to diversify the instructor faculty at schools of instruction. In contrast, there is almost no civilian involvement in professional military education in our organisation. As a result, learning at military schools of instruction usually ends up fitting existing organizational thoughts rather than provoking innovative thinking.

The option of undertaking education courses at civilian universities as full time students will afford the officers the ability to cross-dialogue and network with potential civilian policy makers besides exposing them to ideologies and perceptions they would have missed had they not attended the civilian institution. This would be advantageous as the wars of today cannot be fought in isolation. General David Petraeus, a true personification of the transformative scholar warrior, hardly had any tactical command experience but invested in developing his intellect by earning a master's degree and a doctorate in international relations besides serving as a professor and instructor of international relations at West Point. ¹

Inclusion of civilian academia or retired officers in teaching faculty will enhance the perspective of officers, their ability to have informed discussions and encourage them to think unconventionally besides acquiring the skills to rebut iniquitous critiques, all of which will add to nurturing the skills of military diplomacy. The ability of an organisation to identify the potential in junior officers and provide them an opportunity to develop their higher intellect will pay handsome dividends to our Army in times to come.

• Hollowness in concept of study leave

The concept of study leave was introduced in order to ensure that officers could enroll themselves in civilian graduate schools as full time students in pursuit of higher education. The permission to pursue civilian education has been restricted to officers only after their command tenure or after rejection in their promotion boards.

The numbers of officers pursuing doctorate degrees in civilian institutions above the rank of colonels is minimal and even most of those who apply for study leave have their reasons rested on their family commitments or similar considerations. With study leave being used as a tool for management of officers’ placement by Military Secretary’s branch and the officers themselves, study leave in its present format has adversely affected the intellect growth in the Army. More than mere attendance, the concept of study leave should grow from a content perspective.

• Intellect and Career Progression

There is negligible career incentive for officers carrying out intellectual study, publishing in professional journals or undertaking study leave to develop professional skills. As a result unlike other militaries, in our Army the concept of “scholar warriors” has not been exploited to its true potential. The miniscule number of officers having attained higher qualifications by attending full time civilian universities is in itself a testimony to the emphasis the Army has laid on intellect development.

Recommendations

The world is changing at a pace that has never been seen before. This has driven a strategic environment where the leader must be aware more than just tactical or operational issues. If the Army is to embark on the journey towards finding the rightful place at the decision making tables of our nation, it needs to invest in building of intellect capability of its officer cadre. Some measures suggested are:-

1. Fast tracking the set up of Indian National Defence University (INDU).
2. Creation of a panel of select niche universities where officers are encouraged to enrol as full time students for Masters/ Doctorate.
3. Removing restrictions on quantum of officers availing study leave.
4. Ensuring officers undertake study leave only as full time students in civilian universities.
5. No reduction in service privileges for officers on study leave.
6. Increasing the number of years permissible for study leave.
7. Veteran instructors having obtained degrees from civilian institutes as full time students be employed as instructors at Higher Command (HC) Course, Defense Service Staff College (DSSC) and National Defence College (NDC).
8. Officers obtaining M.Phil/ P.hd degrees from civilian institutes as full time students be considered equivalent to DSSC/ NDC for promotion boards.
9. Incorporating reputed civilians with specialisation in various domains as instructors in schools of higher military learning.

Conclusion

There is an urgent need for promoting intellectual growth amongst the officer cadre of Army. This can be achieved by focussing on value addition to the intellectual content of our organisation. The efforts to develop the intellect of our Army must begin in true earnest if we are to address the intellect deficit. This can happen if and only if the officers at the helm of decision making realise that the intellectual transformation begins when the organisation begins to “think differently.”

Views expressed are personal.