Critical military subjects? Reflections on critical thinking and thinking critically in professional military education

Professional military education (PME) has so far attracted only limited attention within critical military studies (CMS). This contribution provides an opening for further engagement with this important aspect of modern militaries. Specifically, we zoom into an increasingly central aspect in the provision of PME: boosting critical thinking within the armed forces. Yet what it means to foster ‘critical thinking’ within military institutions is contested. To reflect on this aspect and its importance in warranting CMS’s attention, we engage in a conversation that brings together voices from former and current PME educators with experience across different PME institutions (UK/US/Sweden). By juxtaposing their distinct viewpoints, this intervention argues that PME is a site to interrogate a key question of CMS, namely the extent to which CMS scholars ought to relate to military power. We argue that a certain level of proximity, even embeddness as in our case, can offer a vantage point to illuminate the limits and possibilities for critique within military organizations and the silencing effects of military power. These silences manifest in the limits of critique, which we, as PME educators, have encountered in our educational practices, showing that proximity is not without risks and necessitating continued reflexive scrutiny.