Reconsidering American Civil-Military Relations

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.

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.