Latest in Civil-Military Relations
Classifying information because it’s politically sensitive, as Gen. Milley did, undermines the public trust on which the entire system of national security secrecy rests.
Cyberspace may be a domain of military operations, but it is not predominantly so. Civil-military relations in the United States must adapt to new demands or cyberspace may be irretrievably diminished.
Calls to try former senior military officials by court-martial for their public political comments demand contextualization as well as condemnation.
As the role of special operations forces shift with U.S. grand strategy, it's time to reevaluate how they fit into the civilian oversight of the U.S. military.
Many institutions highlight improvements to the experience of veterans on campus, but significant gaps in institutional support for service members remain.
I find much to applaud in Maj. (P) Dan Maurer’s thoughtful Lawfare post on potential unlawful command influence (UCI) issues associated with the president’s tweet about the controversial case of Maj.
The final two months of 2018 have been a remarkably eventful period for observers of American civil-military relations—even for the Trump administration. In just the final two months of 2018, there was the pre-midterm election deployment of troops to the southwest border in response to the supposed “invasion” of the migrant caravan.
On September 25, 1794, President George Washington proclaimed that that he was sending state militia forces to subdue what was dubbed the “Whiskey Rebellion.” The following week, Washington became the first and only sitting president to command forces in the field. The episode included some other important firsts—and even though few shots were ultimately fired, it highlights some significant and peculiar ways in which law controlled military power in the early republic.
We had many indications during the 2016 campaign that a Donald Trump presidency would be bad for civil-military relations.
On Feb. 6, the Washington Post reported that President Trump has instructed the Defense Department to plan a large military parade in Washington on a major holiday. Presumably, the president would attend and review the troops.