RAA Liaison Letter 2024 - 2025 Edition

RAA Liaison Letter – 2024 – 2025 Edition 126 underpins ethical conduct. This doctrine publication describes how ADF members can develop good habits of social and professional practice which represent the highest levels of civilised personal conduct. Through an emphasis on cultivating practical wisdom, this doctrine guides the behaviour of ADF members in critical public service, particularly in the exercise of lethal force. • The Profession of Arms: The 1962 Lees Knowles Lectures given at Trinity College by LTGEN Sir John Winthrop Hackett, KCB, CBE, DSO, MC • Mastering The Profession of Arms, Part 1: The Enduring Nature; Mick Ryan, 8 February 2017; published in War On The Rocks • Bachelor Of Profession of arms by Colin Moat; 29 July 29024; published in- The Cove • The Armed Forces Officer, April 17, 2017 Chapter 2 | The Profession of Arms By Richard M. Swain and Albert C. Pierce The Armed Forces Officer W HAT FOLLOWS IS THE FORUM VISIT REPORT BY B RIGADIER J ANS . Leader Development Implications Seminar / Workshop Brigadier Nick Jans Centre for Defence Leadership & Ethics, Australian Defence College Background I attended the Leader Development Implications Seminar/Workshop in the US from 14-17 September 2010, as the guest of the US Army. The seminar/workshop was part of the Unified Quest 2011 program. Unified Quest is aimed at providing US Army senior leadership with relevant material and recommendations to assist in the near-term strategic reshaping of the US Army. This is in anticipation of a future that will be characterised by a Full Spectrum Operations (i.e., big wars, small wars, war-among-the- people, and wide-area security), fiscal austerity, progressive drawdown from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and recruitment and retention challenges for the military workforce. I was allocated to one of the four panels, viz. on “military professionalism”. The three other panels covered leadership and education implications of the changed operating concept, integration of negotiation theory and practice into the leader development process, and ways to reinvent traditional learning concept/model to better integrate doctrine and leader development strategy. Aim The aim of this report is to: • describe what I learned and what I contributed at the seminar/workshop, in terms of the “profession of arms” panel • discuss how the Centre for Defence Leadership & Ethics and the Army/ADF might benefit from close examination of this particular part of the Unified Quest program; and • propose future action in this respect. Panel 3: The Profession of Arms The panel discussed the advantages of having a strong professional ethic of military institution. The panel acknowledged the fact that professionalism is often taken for granted and is often recognised explicitly only when lack of professionalism becomes a problem. It confirmed the wisdom of periodically examinations of the challenges to and nature of professionalism, at appropriate points in an institution’s life. It identified this time as an appropriate point to do this. A military institution that has a strong professional ethic accrues many advantages, including: • Efficient and effective organisational structures. One of the important factors that allows military organisations to structure themselves in “bureaucratic ways”, taking advantage of the strengths of bureaucracy while avoiding most of their weaknesses, is its avoiding strong sense of professionalism. • Enhanced performance reliability. A strong professional identity is an important factor in maintaining resilience and reliability of performance under extreme pressure. The stronger the professional identity, the more difficult it is for that individual to “act out of character”.