American Civil-Military Relations: The Soldier and the State in a New Era [Paperback]

Suzanne C. Nielsen (Editor), Don M. Snider (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 4, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0801892880 | ISBN-13: 978-0801892882 | Edition: 1

American Civil-Military Relations offers the first comprehensive assessment of the subject since the publication of Samuel P. Huntington’s field-defining book, The Soldier and the State. Using this seminal work as a point of departure, experts in the fields of political science, history, and sociology ask what has been learned and what more needs to be investigated in the relationship between civilian and military sectors in the 21st century.

Leading scholars—such as Richard Betts, Risa Brooks, James Burk, Michael Desch, Peter Feaver, Richard Kohn, Williamson Murray, and David Segal—discuss key issues, including:• changes in officer education since the end of the Cold War;• shifting conceptions of military expertise in response to evolving operational and strategic requirements;• increased military involvement in high-level politics; and• the domestic and international contexts of U.S. civil-military relations.

The first section of the book provides contrasting perspectives of American civil-military relations within the last five decades. The next section addresses Huntington’s conception of societal and functional imperatives and their influence on the civil-military relationship. Following sections examine relationships between military and civilian leaders and describe the norms and practices that should guide those interactions. The editors frame these original essays with introductory and concluding chapters that synthesize the key arguments of the book.

What is clear from the essays in this volume is that the line between civil and military expertise and responsibility is not that sharply drawn, and perhaps given the increasing complexity of international security issues, it should not be. When forming national security policy, the editors conclude, civilian and military leaders need to maintain a respectful and engaged dialogue.

American Civil-Military Relations is essential reading for students and scholars interested in civil-military relations, U.S. politics, and national security policy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Scholars and students of civil-military relations will want to read this book. This is an excellent time for this book to appear as there have been substantial advancements in the study of civil-military relations over the past decade.

(Thomas Langston, Tulane University )

American Civil-Military Relations is a valid and vital updating of Huntington's work and should be on every military reading list today.

(Colonel (Ret.) Robert Killebrew Parameters 2010)

An extremely valuable addition to the literature on civil-military relations, a vitally important issue for both scholars and all government policymakers.

(John R. Ballard On Point 2011)

About the Author

Suzanne C. Nielsen is an associate professor and the director of the International Relations and National Security Studies Program at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, and coeditor of the widely used textbook American National Security, sixth edition, also published by Johns Hopkins. Don M. Snider is an emeritus professor of political science at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, a visiting research professor at the Army War College, and coeditor of The Future of the Army Profession.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press; 1 edition (September 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801892880
• ISBN-13: 978-0801892882
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #555,603 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fifty Years of Civil-Military Relations October 26, 2009

By Joseph J. Collins

Format:Paperback

Edited volumes are often uneven and not worth the price of admission. The best of them, however, are worth their weight in gold. To get to this stage, the book has to be organized along a clear theme; it has to be original work; it has to be well designed; and it has to be tightly edited.

Suzanne Nielsen and Don Snider's volume, American Civil-Military Relations: The Soldier and the State in a New Era is one such work and a valuable addition to the literature on civil-military relations, a vitally important issue for both scholars and practitioners. Getting the balance right between civilian authority and military competence is vital to the republic in war and peace.

The book came from original contributions from experts who attended the West Point Senior Conference in 2007, which was devoted to a festschrift on the 50th anniversary of the publication of Samuel Huntington's epic, The Soldier and the State. The book is best remembered for suggesting that the optimum division of labor is for civilians to make policy, but for the military to give advice, avoid politics, and be accorded professional space in the conduct of tactical and operational affairs. After a few days discussion and subsequent editing, the contributors to this volume --- including Columbia's Dick Betts, UNC's Dick Kohn, Duke's Peter Feaver --- had covered the waterfront, not only critiquing Huntington's basic theory but bringing the analysis forward 50 years to the present day. New material was presented by Colonel Matt Moten on the affair Shinseki, the famous case where a serving Chief of Staff of the Army was "dissed" by senior civilians for giving his honest opinion to Senate questioners. Nadia Schadlow and Colonel Rich Lacquement discussed how the profession of arms has to broaden its view and include stability operations skills in its concept of professional competence. Historian Williamson Murray made important recommendations for professional military education, and Dick Kohn suggested commonsense (but generally conservative) rules for active and retired officers to build trust with their civilian superiors and vice versa.

In the end, no plan survives contact with the enemy and no classic work from 1957 could endure for fifty years without serious corrections and amendments. In their excellent conclusion, Don Snider and LTC Suzanne Nielsen of West Point's Department of Social Sciences summarize nearly a dozen conclusions on the classic. In their words, "the most significant shortcoming of Huntington's construct was its failure to recognize that a separation between political and military affairs is not possible --- particularly at the highest levels of policymaking." And therein lies the rub, as well as the importance of this new book. It should be required reading for all war college students and all senior civilian officials of the Department of Defense should receive a copy of it on the day when they are nominated.

Joseph J. Collins teaches strategy at the National War College. He served for 28 years as an Army officer and later served as a civilian Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense.