Education and training across the U.S. military include numerous diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, according to a report from Arizona State University’s Center for American Institutions.
“The U.S. Armed Forces should not be a laboratory for social experimentation, especially one based on Critical Race Theory, a contentious and abstract social theory,” the executive introduction to the report says. “Yet, as this Commission Report on Civic Education in the Military shows in great detail, Critical Race Theory is promoted within Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training throughout the military from the Pentagon through the ranks and in our service academies.”
Military academics have offices for diversity and inclusion, the report describes, which “coordinate training, support ‘affinity groups’ based on gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity, and promote celebrations based on those identities.”
The Naval Academy also incorporated DEI systems, requiring “faculty candidates to submit diversity statements describing how applicants will contribute to the Academy’s diversity and inclusion mission.”
At the U.S. Air Force Academy, DEI trainings include CRT and the 1619 Project. During a 2023 meeting, a proposal to implement American history education was rejected.
“Traditionally, young people enlisted for many reasons, with a major one being patriotism — to protect the family, country, and faith,” the report states. “That patriotism, if held by a white male, now raises suspicions of white supremacy.”
It adds that DEI efforts focus on eliminating “white supremacy,” even though there is “little or no evidence that there is a problem of white supremacy in the military.”
An independent study conducted earlier this year by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) found “no evidence that the number of violent extremists in the military is disproportionate to the number of violent extremists in the United States as a whole.”
The group noted that division within the U.S. military is a greater threat than extremism.
“IDA found reason to believe that the risk to the military from widespread polarization and division in the ranks may be a greater risk than the radicalization of a few service members,” they wrote.
The internal risks presented by the division within the military were highlighted in the conclusion of Arizona State University’s report.
DEI efforts produce “training materials that parrot dubious, even dangerous, theories that sow the seeds of division and resentment within the ranks of the military,” it says.
“Competence, trust, accountability, creativity, and teamwork are all necessary components of our military’s readiness and lethality, both of which are jeopardized by teaching an ideology with a track record in destroying those things. The military is charged with protecting the nation against foreign and domestic threats and needs servicemembers in its all-volunteer force to understand and believe in American civic values in order to have a unified force ready for any threats,” the report concludes.
