Religion: A Missing Component of Professional Military Education PKSOI Paper | Page 13

focus is moving away from conflict resolution, writ
large, toward conflict prevention. Conflict prevention
is less costly in lives and treasure than interventions
that seek to address on-going violence that can develop into intractable conflict. And, before leaving office,
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel suggested that the
U.S. is moving away from long-term stability operations.12 Successful conflict prevention will require all
hands.
Army leaders intuitively understand they cannot
go it alone when engaging in modern conflicts. An interagency focus guides conflict analysis and intervention. Whole-of-Government approaches to addressing
conflict are seemingly too narrow. We now speak of
Whole-of-Nation and Whole-of-Society approaches
in an attempt to capture what is needed in response
to the wicked problems13 we confront. Wicked problems have no clear solutions.14 Chaos, ambiguity, and
contradiction are standard elements of conflict. For
many, addressing the chaos, and constructing an holistic worldview, is the domain of religion.
Military professionals will benefit positively from
an education focus aiding them to develop a literacy
allowing them to understand and speak to religiously
informed conflicts. Looking at the past 50 years, it is
difficult to think of a conflict in which the mili х