Dominant Military Professional and Civilian Employees

Abstract

The dominant military professional undergoes a shift in order to exercise the most effective leadership in a new threat environment. Moskos et al. identified how the focus of the dominant military professional changed from the modern period from one of a combat leader proficient in the art of war and in exercising effective leadership under combat conditions, to a more managerial role in the late modern military, and thence to a skill set heavy on diplomacy and scholarship in the postmodern era. Most examinations of civilian employees in the military are focused on civilian (i.e., ministerial) control, but the issue goes much deeper, and includes among other things the need to hire technologists and technicians for today’s modern electronic weapons systems, laborers to free up conscripts for training, and civilian contractors at all levels. Until Taiwan’s democratization, the degree of civilian employment in the armed forces was negligible. Those that did operate in conjunction with serving members were very much divided along the same lines as officers and men; with two types of civilian contractors: officer-type and soldier-type. Thus, the pattern of civilian employees in the ROC military appears to be concentrated at the high end and the low end – the high end being the planning and decision-making within the defense organization, and at the low end with clerks and other soldier-type employees. The ROC military’s limited budget makes service members a more viable option, keeping the penetration of civilian employees into the operational side of military operations down to a minor component.

Citation

Karalekas, D. (2018), "Dominant Military Professional and Civilian Employees", Civil-Military Relations in Taiwan, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 93-102. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78756-479-420181007