Crisis, Agency, and Law in US Civil-Military Relations

This book develops a responsible and practical method for evaluating the success, failure, or crisis of American civil-military relations among its political and uniformed elite. The author's premise is that currently there is no objectively fair way for the public at large or the strategic-level elites to assess whether the critical and often obscured relationships between Generals, Admirals, and Statesmen function as they ought to under the US constitutional system. By treating these relationshipsin form and practiceas part of a wider principal (civilian)-agency (military) dynamic, the book tracks the dutiescare, competence, diligence, confidentiality, scope of responsibilityand perceived shortcomings in the interactions between US civilian political authorities and their military advisors in both peacetime and in war.

Offers a close look at the uniqueness of civil-military relations in the US and the extent to which the follow prescribed 'laws'

Provides a creative approach to understanding the 'ecology of war' in general, and its specificity in the US

Makes specific policy recommendations that take into account the 'agency' of civil-military relations, including the amendment of the Goldwater-Nichols Act

Autorentext
Major Dan Maurer is a combat veteran, former engineer officer, and has practiced military law as a prosecutor in courts-martial, as an appellate counsel, and in leadership positions within the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps. He is a contributing author at the United States Military Academy's Modern War Institute.

Inhalt

1. Introduction
   
   2. The Opening Statement
   3. The Case-in-Chief: What the Law Does (Not) Say
   4. The Expert Witnesses: A Cross-Examination
   5. The Expert Witnesses: Fingerprints of Agency
   6. The Rebuttal Witnesses: From Agency to Norms to Diagnosis
   7. Exhibit A: Scope of Responsibility and Authority
   8. Boundaries, or A Poverty of Useful and Unambiguous Authority?
   9. Exhibit B: When Fidelity and Frankness Conflict
   10. Exhibit C: Amending the Goldwater-Nichols Act
   11. Exhibit D: The Future Fallacy, A Civ-Mil Dialogue
   12. Closing Argument