This document discusses different aspects of courage, especially in military contexts. It provides quotes about courage from Aristotle, Winston Churchill, and Billy Graham. It also discusses types of courage like physical, moral, and psychological courage. The document outlines concepts like battlemind, bounded rationality, emergency decision making, courage in personnel and leaders. It notes that courage involves overcoming fear through competence and maintaining morale. Courageous decision making can be proactive or reactive, involving moral strength or apathy. Overall, the document examines the theory and practice of courage from philosophical, military, and leadership perspectives.

1. Jackson Institute for Global Affairs
Courage in
Theory & Practice
Roz Savage

2. Week 10: Military Courage
Week 6: Courageous
Decision-Making

3. Bravery
“We become just by performing
just actions, we become
temperate by performing
temperate actions, brave by
performing brave actions.”
— Aristotle

4. Military Courage
“One ought never to turn one’s
back on a threatened danger and
try to run away from it.
If you do that, you will double the
danger.
But if you meet it promptly and
without flinching, you will reduce
the danger by half.”
— Winston Churchill

5. Military Courage
“Courage is contagious. When a
brave man takes a stand, the
spines of others are often
stiffened.”
– Billy Graham (thanks, Grace)

6. Field Marshall William J Slim
❖ Power of vision of personal future: “Slim
had become what he dreamt of
becoming”
❖ Ability to relate to people at all levels with
respect and affection
❖ Heart-based leadership, grounded in
values
❖ Solid sense of identity as the “Forgotten
Army”
❖ Frequent praise for their accomplishments
❖ Analytical approach to deciding what his
men needed

7. Battlemind
BATTLEMIND
SUSTAINING
FORCES
COURAGEOUS
ACTIONS
Character + intellect + effort
to overcome
fear, anger, sadness
Self-confidence
(self-belief, competence)
+ mental toughness
(overcoming setbacks,
staying positive)
Intrapersonal values: discipline,
intellect, subordination, fairness, brotherhood,
trust, confronting the unpleasant
Interpersonal values: role models,
gestures of support, role of the group -
cooperation, communal will, comradeship
Courage: physical, moral/ethical,
vital, psychological

8. Bounded Rationality
Tractability
(Herbert Simon)

9. Emergency Reactive Decision
Making
❖ Strengths
❖ Weaknesses
❖ Opportunities
❖ Threats

10. It gets complicated…
So, to obey, or not to obey? It depends on the order.
Military members disobey orders at their own risk.
They also obey orders at their own risk.
An order to commit a crime is unlawful.
An order to perform a military duty, no matter how
dangerous is lawful, as long as it doesn't involve the
commission of a crime.

11. Courage in Personnel
(Rachman)
❖ “In the early stages of training people to carry out hazardous tasks,
success is more likely if the person’s motivation is raised appropriately”
❖ Focus on decreasing subjective fear through raising competence
❖ Correlation between courage and optimism, and between fear and
anger
❖ Control, busyness, and autonomy seem to increase courage, decrease
negative emotion
❖ Little correlation between self-reported fear and competence
❖ High group morale and cohesion a predictor of courage

12. Courage in Leaders (Hartley)
❖ Makes hard choices
❖ Accepts responsibility
❖ Does the right thing regardless of consequences
❖ Honesty, integrity, personal code
❖ Confronts risk without showing fear
❖ Perseverance in face of difficulty
❖ Leading from the front
❖ Consistent courage in all aspects of life
❖ Bravery as a subset of courage

15. Courageous Decision-Making
Proactive Decisions
Reactive Decisions
Moral
Energy
Moral
Apathy

16. –Margaret Thatcher to George H. W. Bush,
when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990
“Remember, George, this is no time to go wobbly.”

17. – General Charles C Krulak (1995)
“You need to reach back to your moral touchstone
to ensure that who you are and what you stand for
is as large a part of your professional reputation
as your ability to drive tanks, lead troops,
fly helicopters or draft an overlay.”