The Real Take on Diversity, Inclusion & Military Effectiveness
General reporting on recent and unnecessary anti-"woke" battles over the Pentagon's budget left out the part that actually countered wrong and completely racist notions about DEI in the U.S. military
Publisher’s Note
Last week’s intense wrangling over the Pentagon’s policy budget or what’s typically referred to as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was described as unprecedented for longtime observers of what’s typically viewed as a proforma exercise. Yet, that exercise devolved into a petty Republican “culture war” campaign against “woke” agendas that inserted irrelevant and crackpot debates over abortion care and transgender issues, thereby severely complicating the process and needlessly threatening the passage of the military budget. Those topics regularly permeated headlines last week as the debate raged on in the House.
But, the other debate that was included in the list of reckless grievances from conservatives alongside those above was diversity, equity and inclusion or what’s been popularly referenced as “DEI.” Republicans pushed hard for the removal of diversity initiatives, arguing that the push for permanent DEI efforts in the U.S. military only served to wreck its fighting capabilities.
What stood out in reporting on the DEI aspects of the debate is what seemed like a lack of exploration on the topic. When DEI was mentioned, there wasn’t even reporting in major outlets on the military’s current racial make-up. That would be useful so we can all see how important DEI is by getting a snapshot of the disproportionate number of Black and Brown citizens who serve in the Armed Forces. Pew shows current racial demographics …
Carnegie Endowment for Peace’s Christopher S. Chivvis pointed out the lack of Black soldiers - the largest non-White demographic in the Armed Forces - in military leadership positions. This struggle is playing out right now with the also unprecedented hold, by lone Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), of the confirmation for Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. who is Black, along with 260 other major positions, which in and of itself poses a national security risk …
What was equally important is for journalists to take the extra step of challenging, through basic facts, Republican Congressional member assumptions and arguments that military DEI efforts somehow degrade combat readiness. No one seemed to ask the key question: Where’s the data? Where exactly is it showing that diversity kills a military’s ability to perform? No studies backing that argument were presented. And, much more troubling, the studies that can clearly counter these anti-DEI arguments weren’t being cited nor we experts - like Chivvis above - really being tapped.
There are easily accessible studies arguing DEI does indeed enhance military training and effectiveness. In fact, DEI is an asset for any military force - and it’s what continues to give the U.S. military a continued edge over other geopolitical rivals (at the moment) such as China and Russia which do not showcase diverse population militaries. An extensive multi-author 2022 RAND study would have been a great lead story to start for major outlets, which concluded that “[t]he United Kingdom and U.S. Armed Forces can leverage diversity in three key aspects …
Enhancing organizational capacity for innovation, adaptation and quality of decision-making.
Fostering external legitimacy, enhancing ability to project influence and improving engagement with partners, allies and other domestic and international audiences.
Improving the Armed Forces' ability to attract, retain and foster skills needed to address current and evolving national security imperatives.”
Steve Molinar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies presented this same argument in a 2022 briefing, adding that affirmative action in the military was essential …
Not only does the military need to diversify its own officer corps to improve its effectiveness and represent the American population, our national security requires military officers to work, study, and socialize in diverse environments to confront a complex global security environment.
As the U.S. military struggles to diversify its officer corps, its capability to integrate and educate its commissioned officers will be hindered by our education system’s inability to diversify its student population through affirmative action. Fundamentally, ending affirmative action will harm our national security interests.
Interestingly enough, a 2019 non-partisan Congressional Research Service briefing exploring diversity and inclusion in the military observed …
Here was an opportunity to further understand the existing demographic richness in the U.S. military and to educated Americans that their Armed Forces - which they pay for - is much more racially and ethnically diverse than assumed. Instead, reporting made it seem like there was no counter-argument to the offensive against DEI in the military other than DEI for DEI’s sake.
There was also an opportunity to understand that maintenance of a DEI agenda in the military is not just something constructed to meet popular culture needs or to maintain a “woke” agenda. No, this is absolutely critical to national security needs and to do otherwise actually endangers the American public. Instead, mainstream reporting left out referencing to research from national security experts arguing for the expansion of diversity in the military. That does nothing but support the biased and, frankly, racist arguments and agendas of policymakers fighting to remove it.