Podcast: “A Fireside Chat with Dr. Kori Schake on Civil-Military Relations”
U.S. civil-military relations is a rather hot topic these days. Fortunately, we have a podcast by two world-class experts who discussed it at our 31st Annual National Security Law Conference.
In the video, “A Fireside Chat with Dr. Kori Schake on Civil-Military Relations,” you’ll hear Dr. Schake discussing her recent book, “The State and the Soldier: A History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States”, with Duke University professor (and renown civ-mil scholar) Dr. Peter Feaver.
Dr. Schake, who is Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has penned a book that, in my view, is the definitive text on the subject. Moreover, while it will be clearly of interest to scholars, she has written it in an engaging manner that makes it accessible to everyone. I highly recommend it.
In the video, you’ll see that Kori and Peter have a lively discussion about civil-military relations spanning the Nation’s 250-year history. Importantly, Kori notes that there has “never been a threat of state capture or military coup” in the U.S. She observes that it’s partly “a function of the fact that we have a military that’s small relative to our population, by policy choice, [just] one half of 1% of the American population is all the country has determined it needs to fight and win the nation’s wars.”
They do, however, discuss various civ-mil challenges throughout American history. You’ll hear some very interesting anecdotes with lessons that still resonate today. Here’s a sampling:
KORI SCHAKE: So anybody care to guess who the first American president was to vet military officers by their political party?
AUDIENCE: Thomas Jefferson.
KORI SCHAKE: Thomas Jefferson. He cashiered all of Washington’s young Federalists out of the military because he wanted a political leadership. And guess what? The general he appoints as the senior officer in the United States Army, James Wilkinson, was a Spanish agent the entire 12 years he was the senior general in the Army.
I love that example because, first of all, the nation managed to survive. But second of all, it shows, actually, that partisan sensibilities aren’t actually a very good guide to who’s good at what the military does. And so, in my judgment, the advice I always give is that if you want to choose people by their partisan politics, that’s actually a poor guide to whether they’re good at what the military needs for them to do.
Perhaps most interestingly, Kori has much to say about recent and current civ-mil issues. I won’t attempt to summarize her discussion with Peter, but it is one you’ll definitely want to hear.
There really is a lot in this podcast, and it works well whether you watch the video or just listen to the audio.
Again, you can find the video here.
Remember what we like to say on Lawfire®: gather the facts, examine the law, evaluate the arguments – and then decide for yourself!
