One of the most troubling features of American life is how disconnected most elite, college-educated civilians are from peers in the military. My friend Michael Lindsay (Faith in the Halls of Power) has undertaken a major study of one of the most influential leadership development programs in the United States, the White House Fellows Program. Today on WashingtonPost.com he describes how a program like this provides an opportunity for civilian and military leaders to meet—with significant results.

re: elites, leadership, military, united states

Andy:

Because the White House Fellowship draws younger leaders from many different fields—including business, the military, nonprofits, law, and academia, it provides one of the few professional settings where leaders from very different fields regularly work together and build collegial relations. This cross-pollination of leaders makes a huge difference over the long term. For instance, consider the program’s impact on fellows’ attitudes toward parts of the federal government.

We see that fellows with no military experience express significantly greater confidence in the military after spending a year with a classmate who has a military background, and for each additional class member with a military background, the non-military fellow’s level of confidence rises. Levels of support for the military can rise from 54% to 81% among fellows, depending on how many classmates with military backgrounds were in a class. Most significant, that positive attitude toward the military remains over the course of the leader’s life, whether that Fellowship contact happened last year or four decades ago.