The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations / Edition 1

by Samuel P. Huntington

Overview

In a classic work, Samuel P. Huntington challenges most of the old assumptions and ideas on the role of the military in society. Stressing the value of the military outlook for American national policy, Huntington has performed the distinctive task of developing a general theory of civil–military relations and subjecting it to rigorous historical analysis.

Part One presents the general theory of the "military profession," the "military mind," and civilian control. Huntington analyzes the rise of the military profession in western Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and compares the civil–military relations of Germany and Japan between 1870 and 1945.

Part Two describes the two environmental constants of American civil–military relations, our liberal values and our conservative constitution, and then analyzes the evolution of American civil–military relations from 1789 down to 1940, focusing upon the emergence of the American military profession and the impact upon it of intellectual and political currents.

Huntington describes the revolution in American civil–military relations which took place during World War II when the military emerged from their shell, assumed the leadership of the war, and adopted the attitudes of a liberal society. Part Three continues with an analysis of the problems of American civil–military relations in the era of World War II and the Korean War: the political roles of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the difference in civil–military relations between the Truman and Eisenhower administrations, the role of Congress, and the organization and functioning of the Department of Defense. Huntington concludes that Americans should reassess their liberal values on the basis of a new understanding of the conservative realism of the professional military men.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674817364
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	09/15/1981
Series:	Belknap Press S
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	560
Sales rank:	375,113
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Samuel P. Huntington was Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs at Harvard University and the author of The Clash of Civilizations, The Soldier and the State, Political Order in Changing Societies, and American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony, among other books.

Table of Contents

Introduction: National Security and Civil-Military Relations

PART I MILITARY INSTITUTIONS AND THE STATE: THEORETICAL AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

1. Officership as a Profession

Professionalism and the Military

The Concept of Profession

The Military Profession

2. The Rise of the Military Profession in Western Society

A New Social Type

Mercenary and Aristocratic Officership

Eighteenth-Century Aristocratic Institutions

Preprofessional Meals: The Military Craft and the Natural Genius

The Origins of Professionalism

The Emergence of Professional Institutions, 1800-1875

European Professionalism: General Upton's Summary, 1875

Formulation of the Professional Ethic: The Autonomy and Sub-Ordination of War In Clausewitz's Vom Kriege

3. The Military Mind: Conservative Realism of the Professional Military Ethic

The Meaning of the Military Mind

The Professional Military Ethic

4. Power, Professionalism, and Ideology: Civil-Military Relations In Theory

The Varieties of Civilian Control

The Two Levels of Civil-Military Relations

The Equilibrium of Objective Civilian Control

The Patterns of Civil-Military Relations

5. Germany and Japan: Civil-Military Relations In Practice

The German and Japanese Patterns

Germany: The Tragedy of Professional Militarism

Japan: The Continuity of Political Militarism

PART II MILITARY POWER IN AMERICA: THE HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE, 1789-1940

6. The Ideological Constant: The Liberal Society Versus Military Professionalism

The Historical Constants of American Civil-Military Relations

The Prevalence of Liberalism in the United States

The Liberal Approach to Military Affairs

The Military Hero in Liberal Politics

7. The Structural Constant: The Conservative Constitution

Versus Civilian Control

The Constitutional Absence of Objective Civilian Control

The Framers and Civilian Control

The Militia Clauses and Military Federalism: The Empire Within an Empire

The Separation of Powers: Dual Control Over the National Forces

The Commander in Chief Clause: The Political-Military Hierarchy

Civilian Control and Constitutional Government

8. The Roots of the American Military Tradition Before the Civil War

The Three Strands of American Militarism

The Failure of Federalism: Hamilton's Abortive Professionalism

Technicism

Popularism

Professionalism

9. The Creation of the American Military Profession

The Dominance of Business Pacifism: Industrialism Versus Militarism

Years of Isolation: The Dark and the Bright

The Creative Core: Sherman, Upton, Luce

The Institutions of Professionalism

The Making of the American Military Mind

10. The Failure of the Neo-Hamiltonian Compromise, 1890-1920

The Nature of Neo-Hamiltonianism

Mahan And Wood: The Tragedy of the Military Publicist

The Abortive Identification With Society, 1918-1925

11. The Constancy of Interwar Civil-Military Relations

Business-Reform Hostility and Military Professionalism

Reform Liberalism: The Pragmatic Usages of Militarism

Military Institutions

The American Military Ethic, 1920-1941

PART III THE CRISIS OF AMERICAN CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS, 1940-1955

12. World War II: The Alchemy of Power

Civil-Military Relations in Total War

Military Authority and Influence in Grand Strategy

The Military Adjustment to Wartime Power

Civil-Military Relations in Economic Mobilization

The Fruits of Harmony and Acrimony

13. Civil-Military Relations in the Postwar Decade

The Alternatives of Civil-Military Relations

Postwar Perspectives on Civil-Military Relations

Military Influence in American Society

14. The Political Roles of the Joint Chiefs

Political Roles: Substantive and Advocatory

The Joint Chiefs in the Truman Administration

The Korean War: the Generals, the Troops, and the Public

The Joint Chiefs in the First Two Years of the Eisenhower Administration

Conclusion

15. The Separation of Powers and Cold War Defense

The Impact of the Separation of Powers

The Separation of Powers Versus the Separation of Functions

The Separation of Powers Versus Military Professionalism

The Separation of Powers Versus Strategic Monism

16. Departmental Structure of Civil-Military Relations

The Organization Problems of the Postwar Decade

The Joint Chiefs of Staff: Legal Form and Political Reality

The Comptroller: Superego of the Department of Defense

The Role of the Secretary

The Needs of the Office

17. Toward a New Equilibrium

The Requisite For Security

Changes in the Ideological Environment

Conservatism and Security

The Worth of the Military Ideal

Notes

Index

Editorial Reviews

The problem of civil–military relations is of critical importance in American affairs… Huntington establishes his basic propositions, formulates his theoretical framework, and analyzes historical and contemporary developments in the United States and abroad with skill and insight. The clarity and precision with which the book moves forward make it a delight to read.

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

The book contains many insights about both America and its soldiers, and the thought behind many of its conclusions is hard and clean… It also disposes of a number of prejudices about the military that still clog the policy process… Here is a book to make one think.

American Political Science Review