Military Review English Edition September-October 2013 | Page 13

Fighting Alone
The Challenge of Shrinking Social Capital Captain Charlie Lewis, U.S. Army and the Army Profession
Maj. Charlie Lewis, U.S. Army

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Maj. Charlie Lewis is an instructor in the Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) at West Point. He is a graduate of USMA and holds an M.P.P. from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He served in a variety of positions with 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, and deployed to Iraq multiple times.

PHOTO: A soldier assigned to 2nd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry, provides security during counter-improvised explosive device training in Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, 18 April 2013. (U.S. Army, Gertrud Zach)

ORT BLISS WAS recognized “as a promising model for the Army” after a 30 percent drop in suicides this year. To foster trust, support, and connections to lower the suicide rate, the commander, Maj. Gen. Dana J.H. Pittard, opened Fort Bliss to the public, created outdoor spaces, and “reintroduced dayrooms” where soldiers can gather.1 These actions increased social capital, which is the social networks, norms of reciprocity, and social trust among soldiers, units, and the community. The Bliss model demonstrates the strength of such connections among soldiers, their leaders, their families, and their local surroundings. However, the model has not expanded across the Army. As the military faces large budget and personnel cuts and an end to combat operations, the Army as a profession must enhance the social trust and esprit de corps it requires through social capital development. If social capital declines precipitously, the strength of the Army Profession will face a similar drop. Challenges include limited training resources, making what once occurred naturally—the development of social capital and its trustworthiness and pride—hard to find, leaving soldiers to fight alone, instead of as a team. Beyond training, other chances to foster the Army’s culture are diminishing. Unit interactions are limited to the workday because of decreased funding for outside activities. Even living together is changing. Increased communications and social media access allows members of the profession to remain more connected to hometowns, thereby isolating themselves, lowering the value of the Army culture, and increasing the problems, like suicide and sexual assault. Bridges are cut between the Army and society because of fewer bases, fewer Americans serving, and geography sorting the American population from soldiers. Preventing this situation requires leaders and soldiers to incorporate methods aimed at maintaining current levels of social capital. The greatest challenge facing the Army as a profession over the next decade is a collapse of social capital and the associated bonds, reciprocity, and trust upon which the Army Profession thrives.
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MILITARY REVIEW ? September-October 2013