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Removing barriers to diversity in the UK and US militaries could bring significant operational and strategic advantage

Land August 25, 2022

A new report from RAND Europe Leveraging Diversity for Military Effectiveness  has highlighted the significant strategic advantage that embracing diversity in the military could bring to the UK and the US.

From the exceptional information skills prevalent in many neurodiverse individuals, to language capability and advantages associated with having a military force that reflects the make-up of wider society, the report finds a significant range of benefits.

In a rapidly evolving environment, the Armed Forces need to leverage all available advantages to maximise strategic and operational effectiveness.

Areas of military activity already seeing rapid change include technology, new domains and changing conflict geography, as well as changing dynamics between and among state and non-state actors.

Researchers based in the UK and US investigated what advantages diversity can bring to the Armed Forces as they navigate a changing nature of warfare and strategic trends like the impact of emerging technologies.

It highlighted, for example, that diversity would be important in developing effective, ethical and trust-worthy AI systems.

To effectively leverage diversity in this and other contexts of military activity, the research noted however that ambition needs to be matched with addressing barriers to inclusion within existing structures, such as retention and promotion of diverse personnel.

The team recommend a clear, strategic approach to overcoming these barriers to inclusion, with the opportunities and priorities identified through an operational framework to improve diverse representation in three key ways:

• Enhancing organisational capacity for innovation, adaptation and quality of decision-making
• Fostering external legitimacy, enhancing military ability to project influence and improving engagement with partners, allies and other domestic and international audiences
• Improving the Armed Forces’ ability to attract, retain and foster skills needed to address current and evolving national security imperatives
  

Ben Caves, Senior Research Leader at RAND Europe said: “It’s clear that the UK and US militaries are facing a range of new challenges on a number of fronts.

“Our research finds that to address these challenges, the military needs diverse perspectives and skillsets – and that means employing, retaining and promoting a diverse workforce.

“The UK and US Armed Forces have come a long way in attracting diverse workforces in recent years, though we know that barriers to inclusion still exist.

“Our study offers key decision-makers in the UK and US Armed Forces an actionable framework for leveraging diversity and implementing the necessary change in how the Defence workforce is managed.”

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Post written by: Matt Brown