Melancholy Reunion: A Report from the Future on the Collapse of Civil-Military Relations in the United States.
Abstract
The year is 2017. The United States has suffered not only defeats in the High-Tech War of 2007 and the Second Gulf War of 2010, but also a military coup in 2012. That coup, engineered by a highly politicized officer corps that blamed these bloody losses on "incompetent" civilian leaders, was initially welcomed by a public exasperated with elected government. The speaker argues that a revised framework for civil-military relations should have been built along the lines of what he calls the "New American Model." The model's centerpiece is the idea that effective civilian control of a large professional military in a democracy requires pervasive transparency, especially in peacetime. It contends that the military in a democracy should be controlled by public opinion. The model provides a template for the proper role of military officers in political discourse. It agrees with the assertion that advisory, representative, and executive functions for military officers are clearly consistent with proper civil-military relations. It views as impractical a return to the draft as a means of enhancing civil-military relations. It does not consider great reliance on the Guard and Reserve, although turning most aspects of information warfare over to citizen-soldiers may further civilian control.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1996
- Accession Number
- ADA365374
Entities
People
- Charles J. Dunlap Jr.
Organizations
- United States Air Force Academy