This book explores contemporary civil-military relations in the United States. Much of the canonical literature on civil-military relations was either written during or references the Cold War, while other major research focuses on the post-Cold War era, or the first decade of the twenty-first century. A great deal has changed since then.
This book considers the implications for civil-military relations of many of these changes. Specifically, it focuses on factors such as breakdowns in democratic and civil-military norms and conventions; intensifying partisanship and deepening political divisions in American society; as well as new technology and the evolving character of armed conflict. Chapters are organized around the principal actors in civil-military relations, and the book includes sections on the military, civilian leadership, and the public. It explores the roles and obligations of each. The book also examines how changes in contemporary armed conflict influence civil-military relations. Chapters in this section examine the cyber domain, grey zone operations, asymmetric warfare and emerging technology. The book thus brings the study of civil-military relations into the contemporary era, in which new geopolitical realities and the changing character of armed conflict combine with domestic political tensions to test, if not potentially redefine, those relations.
"Foreword, Peter D. Feaver Introduction, Lionel Beehner and Daniel Maurer Section I: The Military's Roles and Responsibilities 1. The Paradoxes of Huntingtonian Professionalism, Risa A. Brooks 2. Civil-military relations Norms and Democracy: What Every Citizen Should Know, Marybeth P. Ulrich 3. Dissents and Sensibility: Conflicting Loyalties, Democracy, and Civil-Military Relations, Michael A. Robinson, Lindsay P. Cohn, and Max Z. Margulies Section II: The Civilian Leadership's Roles and Responsibilities 4. Civilian Oversight Inside the Pentagon: Who Does It and How?, Mara Karlin 5. Who has ""Skin in the Game""? The Implications of an Operational Reserve for Civil-Military Relations, Jessica Blankshain 6. Militarized Ministries of Defense? Placing the Military Experience of Secretaries of Defense in a Comparative Context, Peter B. White Section III: The Public's Role and Responsibilities 7. A Matter of Trust: Five Pitfalls that Could Squander the American Public's Confidence in the Military, Heidi A. Urben and James T. Golby 8. Confidence Without Sacrifice: American Public Opinion and the U.S. Military, David T. Burbach 9. When an Immovable Object Meets an Irresistible Force: Military Popularity and Affective Partisanship, Jonathan D. Caverley 10. Crisis in the Civil-Military Triangle?, William E. Rapp Section IV: Modern War and Civil-Military Relations 11. Light Footprint, Low Profile, Low Information: Civil-Military Relations and the 2017 Niger Attacks, Alice Hunt Friend 12. The Civil-Military Implications of Emerging Technology, Risa A. Brooks 13. Cyber Operations, Legal Secrecy, and Civil-Military Relations, Dakota S. Rudesill 14. U.S. Civil Military Relations in the Gray Zone, Sarah Sewall Conclusion, Risa A. Brooks"
Lionel Beehner is an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and formerly Research Director and Assistant Professor at West Point's Modern War Institute. Risa Brooks is Allis Chalmers Associate Professor of Political Science at Marquette University, where she specializes in the study of civil-military relations and political violence. She is also a non-resident senior associate in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C. and an Adjunct Scholar at West Point's Modern War Institute. Daniel Maurer is Assistant Professor of Law at the United States Military Academy and Fellow with West Point's Modern War Institute, where he focuses on the intersection of civil-military relations and military justice. He is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army, and a judge advocate. He has served in Iraq twice, first as a combat engineer platoon leader and later a brigade's senior legal advisor.
Reviews for Reconsidering American Civil-Military Relations: The Military, Society, Politics, and Modern War
This is a 'must read' for anyone who wants to take a closer look into the world of civil-military relations. What shapes our practices? Where are things headed? Are the old concepts still relevant to the new domestic and geopolitical realities? Read this compilation as a particularly helpful guide for those who may desire to find themselves part of the solution, rather than part of the problem. * Vincent K. Brooks, General, US Army Retired, Visiting Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and Distinguished Fellow at the University of Texas Clements Center for National Security * This timely and well-crafted contribution to the literature on American civil-military relations deserves careful attention from scholars, practitioners, and the general public. The quality of civil-military relations in the United States depends on more than civilian and military leaders in the U.S. government, and this volume helps readers think critically about the involvement of the American public and the impact of the changing character of war.An essential read! * Suzanne C. Nielsen, co-editor of American Civil-Military Relations: The Soldier and the State in a New Era * Reconsidering American Civil-Military Relations is the best book on the subject in decades. It features all the most important scholars and-hugely consequentially-examines the responsibilities of the military, civilian leaders, and the American public in making our system work. * Kori Schake, co-editor of Warriors and Citizens: American Views of Our Military *
