Who is the "honest broker"? That is a good question. I don't know. How does one be an honest broker when working within an organization that is by its very nature biased due to an overarching mission of advocating for a particular aspect of our total system?

That is like the proverbial camel making it through the eye of the needle. (the small gate in walled cites that could be opened at night after the main gate was closed).

The army is much more purely a war fighting service than any of the others. Particularly for maritime nations with no neighboring ground threat to have to respond rapidly to. So the army is on a quest for relevance that creates a tremendous bias. They seek to expand the definition of war. They seek to expand the perceived necessity for military engagement overseas in times of peace. They seek to sell a "land power" solution as to key to virtually every security problem.

It is little wonder our doctrine on conflict and war is so confused, when all of the cooks are working off of a different idea of what the proper solution looks like, and works mightily to craft the problem into the context of their respective solutions. Who is it that works to understand and frame problems for what they actually are?

The services like leaders and action officers who are grinders and who adhere strictly to the party line. Innovation is only wanted in the context of those two things. If you opt to be a thinker, then you will not be grinding as hard as your peers, and your thoughts will likely take you outside of the party lines. At that point you become a heretic and a pain in the neck, or even a threat, to those dedicated to head down grinding.

Know your boss, know your environment. Good bosses like good ideas and will know what they can and can't advance. It is a game of inches when all around you are running 100 miles per hour.