"The post-Vietnam military is much more politically sophisticated and prepared to influence Washington politics. At the same time, due to changes in rules (the end of the draft in 1973) and norms (Lockean society versus a Rousseauean military), fewer national-level civilian leaders have military experience today. The confluence of an increasingly political savvy military and a civilian leadership with lesser national security expertise has created principal-agent hazards at the top-tiers of the national security issue network."
"The thesis concludes with policy recommendations aimed at strengthening the civilian side of the relationship. The key to this is to move beyond Huntington's "objective control" and Janowitz's "subjective control" to embrace Madisonian concepts of pluralism and competition among top-level civilian and military officials in the DOD. By fostering a healthy and balanced relationship at the Pentagon, elected leaders will enhance their control of the military while simultaneously getting better national security policy."
"This thesis argues that the civil-military turbulence witnessed at the outset of the Clinton administration was caused by longer-term systemic factors related to the professional preparation of top-level presidential advisors (both civilian and military). The findings challenge prevailing arguments in the literature that cite either President Clinton or an over-reaching military as the primary cause for the changing dynamic in US civil-military relations."
"This thesis argues that because of changes in the relative professional backgrounds (as measured by education and assignment history indicators) of the key players in the national security decisionmaking process and to the structural arrangements, norms, and rules of civil and military institutions (e.g., NSC, OSD, and JCS), military leaders have wielded more influence in the decisionmaking process since the end of the Cold War. The Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 has played a role in this, but the initial causes are traced to the military's reaction to the Vietnam War and its response to the domination of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and his top aides in the 1960s. These seminal experiences caused changes in military norms, particularly their willingness to acquire and use political knowledge and expertise."
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This is a placeholder reference for a Topic entity, related to a WorldCat Entity. Over time, these references will be replaced with persistent URIs to VIAF, FAST, WorldCat, and other Linked Data resources.
This is a placeholder reference for a Topic entity, related to a WorldCat Entity. Over time, these references will be replaced with persistent URIs to VIAF, FAST, WorldCat, and other Linked Data resources.