Smartphone Bans Won’t Restore Military Virtue

Political calls to ban phones in the military are often framed as fixes for declining discipline, but the underlying problem is a broader cultural and institutional loss of civic virtues (habits of attention, deference to duty, shared story). Symbolic device bans can be implemented quickly yet leave the deeper drivers — education, leadership, peer norms, and institutional incentives — unaddressed and may produce backlash or hollow obedience. — This reframes a common policy response (device bans) as a shallow fix and pushes debate toward sustained institutional and civic remedies for readiness and cohesion.