“Cadet! Going to Command, Learn to Obey” How Generals of the Future Are Formed

Abstract

At the Military Academy of Agulhas Negras, officers of the Brazilian Army are trained in their professional, political, social, and cultural aspects. In this article, it is proposed to identify the profile and how those who, in the future, will be generals, are formed. For this, the research uses quantitative data from the cadets' profile from 2002 to 2012 and analyzes formal teaching characteristics, such as curricula and schedules. The informal and equally relevant dimension of the learning process also deserved attention: the re-socialization of the student through permanent exposure to situations with a strong symbolic load, when notions of hierarchy, discipline, and what it means to be military in the face of the 'civilian' are formed. The conclusions dialogue with related studies, questioning the Army as the image of the nation, confirming trends, and bringing news, such as the growth of recruitment among civilians and the permanence of endogenous recruitment, but now among the low-ranking military.