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Alumni Publication: "Military Professionalism at Crossroads: A Review of Ginsburgh’s Thoughts" by Lt Col Thokozani Chazema
On 22 March 2024, the NESA Center for Strategic Studies published NESA Center alum Lt Col Thokozani Chazema's latest article, "Military Professionalism at Crossroads: A Review of Ginsburgh’s Thoughts."
Introduction:
Just like many other old soldiers, the feeling that professionalism is being challenged due to the changing operating environment reigns supreme. The feeling is the same with Robert Nathan Ginsburgh (1925–2017) who, writing as a member of policy planning in the U.S. Air Force (USAF), and as a colonel in 1964, wrote an article entitled “The Challenge to Military Professionalism.” Ginsburgh argued that the changing environment in the U.S. military domain, the shifting of military isolation that characterised the World Wars to a military embroiled in civil-military relations that proponents the civilian control of the armed forces is challenging the professional aspects of a military man. Bringing his experience from World War II and the Cold War era, he gives a compelling analysis of a professional soldier in the two eras of World War II and the Cold War. To Ginsburgh, the involvement of civilians in military affairs erodes the military professionalism required of a military person. This article critic, therefore, intends to evaluate Ginsburgh’s thoughts on the challenges to military professionalism by first identifying the central thesis of the article.
About the Author
Lt Col Thokozani Chazema is an adjunct lecturer at Mzuzu University, Department of Governance, Peace and Security Studies; an adjunct lecturer at Malawi Defence Force Command and Staff College affiliated to Malawi University of Science and Technology, Bingu School of Culture and Heritage, Defence and Strategic Studies Program; a PhD Candidate, Transformative Community Development, Mzuzu University. He is a 2023 alum of the NESA Center.
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