Ray Mabus

Opinion contributor

Questions about the value of diversity will be very visibly on the line this week in a case against Harvard’s admissions policy brought by legal activist Edward Blum, who has frequently challenged civil rights measures and race-conscious admissions. It would be bad for students and the nation if this lawsuit succeeded. It would strip the freedom and flexibility that Harvard — and other universities — need to create the diverse learning environment that benefits all students, and it would leave these students less equipped to make a difference in the world.

I have some perspective on this topic. As secretary of the Navy for almost eight years, my focus was to maintain and advance our Navy and Marine Corps as the most effective fighting force the world has ever known. To do that required drawing from the widest possible talent pool with the broadest range of life experiences. And here I found one clear truth: The more diverse a group is, the stronger it is.

This is true for all organizations, but it's especially true for the military. A military force that looks too much alike, thinks too much alike and acts too much alike becomes predictable. And a predictable force is a defeatable force. This is not diversity for diversity’s sake, and it’s not about political correctness. This is about having people from varied backgrounds and experiences who approach issues and challenges from many different viewpoints. We learn from difference.

A diverse military is a stronger military

The Harvard case is specifically about how the university handles Asian-American admissions, but the larger issue should not get lost. What’s at stake in the national debate and this lawsuit is the exposure to the diverse environments that best prepares women and men for careers in the military and beyond. I've seen firsthand that a commitment to diversity strengthens organizations, people and our nation.

During my tenure, we opened submarine and riverine service to women; pushed for and then implemented the repeal of “don’t ask; don’t tell”; and made ground combat roles open to women (the last place women were excluded in the Navy and Marines). We returned Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps to Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia after an absence of 40 years and established NROTC units at Rutgers and Arizona State Universities, two of the nation's more diverse campuses. Weincreased the percentage of women at the Naval Academy from 17 percent to nearly 30 percent, and worked to allow transgender individuals to serve openly.

Every time the military has included different types of people, starting with integrating the armed forces after World War II, proponents of the status quo — those who want a homogeneous military — have used exactly the same old and sometimes ugly arguments against the move. They have said that it would weaken unit cohesion or create morale and recruiting problems. Or they just called it “social engineering.”

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Every time, these arguments were wrong. And every time the force has become more diverse, it has become stronger and more effective. Diversity has made the military betterat the missions the country has given it.

Especially important is that while we know what the missions of today are, no one knows what we will face tomorrow. We must have a military not wedded to any one way of thinking so that it can meet whatever challenges come over the horizon.

One of the basic infantry combat tests that Marines use is to be able to get over an 8-foot wall. When men go through this test, individuals who can’t get over keep trying on their own until they finally make it or give up. When women were being tested for ground combat in 2015 and the first woman through couldn’t make it over the wall, all the other women banded together and helped each other until all got over.

Learn the right diversity lessons from history

This is not only a great example of thinking about a challenge in a different way, it is also the very ethos of the Marines: Improvise, adapt, overcome.

I had the honor of naming a Navy ship for Harvey Milk, the gay rights activist who proved his courage again and again. Early in his life, Milk was a Navy diver, one of the toughest jobs there is. He was kicked out of the Navy when it was discovered that he was gay. How much weaker was our Navy, how much weaker was our nation, when we did not have the services of patriots like Milk and so many others, simply because they were somehow different?

And that’s the core question here. Will we weaken America’s colleges and universities — and in turn the nation and institutions where graduates go on to work and serve? Or will we learn the right lessons from history and continue to chart a path toward more diverse and inclusive institutions? In the end, for me, the answer is always the same: More diversity equals greater strength.

Ray Mabus, a former Mississippi governor and ambassador to Saudi Arabia, was secretary of the Navy from 2009 to 2017. Follow him on Twitter: @SECNAV75