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What’s in a piece? Yesterday I made the case in @ForeignAffairs that civ control was eroding, & has resulted in a militarized foreign policy.
But this didn't come out of the blue. A lot of engagement with the best in our field led here. So let’s give credit where it's due. 1/20 https://twitter.com/ForeignAffairs/status/1318510117336305664
But this didn't come out of the blue. A lot of engagement with the best in our field led here. So let’s give credit where it's due. 1/20 https://twitter.com/ForeignAffairs/status/1318510117336305664
Civ control has been eroding for a while. In 2017, @TXNatSecReview had a roundtable where @jblankshain, @lindsaypcohn, @PaulDEaton52, @LaurenFishDC, and Raphael Cohen discussed the # of ex-generals being appointed. I assign it for my civ-mil class. 2/20 https://tnsr.org/roundtable/policy-roundtable-civil-military-relations-now-tomorrow/
This was followed by @MichaelEOHanlon at @BrookingsFP, the National Defense Strategy Commission’s Report, and @LorenRaeDeJ, @ahfdc, and Mara Karlin about the ebbs and flows of civilian control in the Trump admin. 3/20
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/11/26/is-civilian-control-of-the-military-eroding/
Also this: https://www.cnas.org/publications/commentary/two-cheers-for-espers-plan-to-reassert-civilian-control-of-the-pentagon
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/11/26/is-civilian-control-of-the-military-eroding/
Also this: https://www.cnas.org/publications/commentary/two-cheers-for-espers-plan-to-reassert-civilian-control-of-the-pentagon
How did we get there? Well this too has been pretty well-explored territory. First, the appointment of retired generals to political offices. @Carter_PE and @LorenRaeDeJ wrote early about this and the dangers associated with Trump’s appointments. 4/20 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-surrounding-himself-with-generals-thats-dangerous/2016/11/30/e6a0a972-b190-11e6-840f-e3ebab6bcdd3_story.html
More so than civilians just in a job, the military is a total organization. And so military leaders tend to see the world differently, & have limited networks outside of vet orgs. It’s why Mattis needed a waiver to become SecDef in the first place. 5/20 https://www.militarytimes.com/news/2017/01/10/why-does-mattis-need-a-waiver-to-become-defense-secretary/
. @JimGolby did a great job of breaking down the general issues that plagued Mattis at the helm, and where he helped and hurt civil-military norms during his tenure. 6/20 https://warontherocks.com/2019/02/in-the-wake-of-chaos-civil-military-relations-under-secretary-jim-mattis/
Second is because of staffing issues. Here I'm grateful to great work that’s been done by many in and out of the USG calling attention to the staffing shortages and budget cuts. Some I’ve see with my own eyes through @TrumanProject membership. 7/20
Other have been writing about this for a while. From @LorenRaeDeJ, @28Cranfield, and
@MEaglen on the health of the civilian workforce and veterans preference... 8/20
Here: https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2019/11/national-security-made-people/161132/
and here: https://warontherocks.com/2020/06/is-veterans-preference-bad-for-the-national-security-workforce/
@MEaglen on the health of the civilian workforce and veterans preference... 8/20
Here: https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2019/11/national-security-made-people/161132/
and here: https://warontherocks.com/2020/06/is-veterans-preference-bad-for-the-national-security-workforce/
to @RisaBrooks12 and @ahfdc on Career Military Officers and Political Appointments, they’ve been enormously influential in shaping our thinking about how policy gets made. 9/20 https://www.csis.org/analysis/career-military-officers-and-political-appointments
Third, political incentives. We’re in an era where the public and civilians have incentives to defer to the military. Starting with Mara Karlin and @jimgolby's work on “Best Military Advice”—another piece I assign to students @AirWarCollege . 10/20 https://www.fpri.org/article/2018/01/best-military-advice-bad-military-worse-civilians/
And moving on to @m_robinson771's work about politicization, which has been so important to helping us think through how partisans see the military, and think through asymmetric political incentives to defer to the military. 11/20 https://warontherocks.com/2018/08/danger-close-military-politicization-and-elite-credibility/
This was brilliantly elaborated upon this summer by @RobertJRalston and twitter-less Ron Krebs in their @ForeignAffairs piece last summer. 12/20 https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-07-14/civilian-control-military-partisan-issue
But the best and most prolific work is by @ahfdc, who rightfully commented yesterday about how eroding civ control in policy-making is not just the mil getting its way, but about civs adopting a mil mindset. Seriously, y’all, check out her work. 13/20 https://twitter.com/ahfdc/status/1318210984151048197
It’s complicated of course. Because there is no one “civilian” position on anything, and many civilians agree with military preferences about the nature of the threat. @ForeignAffairs interviewed many of them last week! 14/20 https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ask-the-experts/2020-10-13/should-us-foreign-policy-focus-great-power-competition
But what does it mean, and so what if civilian control is eroding? We made, as I’ve pointed out in earlier threads, a Faustian bargain because keeping alliances were critical to US security. 15/20 https://twitter.com/CarrieALee1/status/1269403905554817025
Here comes Jack Snyder. We all have those articles that we read and it makes the light bulb go on. Well, his 1984 piece from @Journal_IS is one of those for me, (now edited by the great @MorganLKaplan). I re-read it it last year and it clicked. 16/20
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2538637?seq=1
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2538637?seq=1
I was greatly helped by the Deterrence Working Group @AirWarCollege for thinking about current policy, escalation, and the deterrence lit. @USAF_CSDS, @ToddRobinson, @james_platte, @stvburgess0, and others are brilliant and engaged scholars that make me better. 17/20
That resulted in a short talk at @AirWarCollege #NationalSecurityForum. Fleshing out ideas, forming the concepts. Then more thought, rumination, drafting, editing, and *insecurity about the argument.* I would have shelved it if not for the encouragement of my partner. 18/20
More editing, with super helpful comments by @DeborahAvant1, @RisaBrooks12, and twitter-less Chris Hemmer, Peter Feaver, and Scott Sagan. Originally a 4,500 word piece, then cut down to <2,000. 19/20
All of this is to say that we all have intellectual debts. No idea comes from nowhere. But maybe if we’re lucky, we can put something together in a coherent way and start a conversation. 20/20
