Political Scientist's New Book Examines Civil-Military Relations
In his new book, professor Peter Feaver challenges an old assumption that the military is automatically obedient to its civilian leadership
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
"Armed Servants: Agency, Oversight, and Civil-Military Relations," scheduled to be released this month by Harvard University Press, focuses on post-Cold War administrations, but also offers insight into post-Sept. 11 national security and President George W. Bush’s handling of the current conflict with Iraq.
"For too long, people assumed because we’ve never had a coup that there was not much worth knowing about American civil-military relations," said Peter D. Feaver, associate professor of political science at Duke. "Even in that zone of stability, you can have better or worse relations and that can shape use-of-force decisions."
Feaver is an expert on American foreign policy and national security. In the book, he challenges an old assumption that the military is automatically obedient to its civilian leadership. Rather, Feaver argues, the civil-military relationship is a far more complex game of bargaining.
"The book shows the military is indeed very professional, but that does not mean the military is reflexively doing everything the civilian leadership tells it to do," said Feaver, who in 1993-94 served as Director for Defense Policy and Arms Control on the National Security Council at the White House. "What I’m arguing is that the military works very much like other bureaucracies. When it’s confronted with a weak leader, it will resist. When the weak leader asks the military to do something it doesn’t want to do, it will resist."
During the President Bill Clinton years, Feaver said, the relationship between the civilian leadership and the military was strained because of a series of decisions Clinton made that the military did not support. When Bush and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld came into power, they tried to re-establish control and make clear that insubordination would be punished.
This change in approach has improved the level of civil-military cooperation during the Bush administration, although friction is still evident. "Even with a strong president like Bush, there’s still a fair amount of bargaining over the war with Iraq," Feaver said.
Feaver can be reached for additional comment at (919) 660-4331 or pfeaver@duke.edu .
