A military code of Professional Conduct

A new sense of professionalism could result if minimum standards of military professional conduct were identified and those standards incorporated into a comprehensive military code of professional conduct.

For the all-volunteer peacetime military, a code of conduct would be enforced administratively much like analogous codes of professional conduct for the legal and medical professions. For them the most serious punishment for professional dereliction is loss of professional standing, the equivalent of an administrative separation from military service. Short of separation these professions, like the military, have a variety of administrative sanctions, beginning with a simple reprimand.

But the analogy between the military and the legal and medical professions can be carried only so far. Members of the civilian professions are not duty-bound to obey the orders of their superiors and to risk their lives in the line of duty. These distinctions make the military unique and justify coercion to ensure compliance with lawful orders. While administrative and non-judicial measures are adequate to maintain good order and discipline in an all-volunteer peacetime military, they must be supplemented by the criminal sanctions of court-martial in war and periods of involuntary service.

The unique nature of the military profession requires a more flexible code of conduct than those of the civilian professions. There must be more severe punishments for wartime offenses; failing to obey a lawful order should be a disciplinary measure in peace but a military crime in war. The punitive articles decriminalized for the all-volunteer force would revert to crimes in the event of war or the reinstatement of the draft.