Kori Schake
The following is an adapted excerpt from The State And The Soldier: A History Of Civil-military Relations In The United States, a new book from Kori Schake, Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. You can purchase the book, which is out now in Europe and October 26th in the US, by clicking here.
How is it that a country founded in fear of a standing army would come to think of its military as a bulwark of democracy?
There is no other country in which the military is so proficient, so respected, so influential in policymaking without becoming a threat to civilian governance. Standard models of civil–military relations would predict a military so constituted to be tempted by coups or state capture. Yet, for over 250 years, there has never been an organized attempt to overthrow the US government by its military. It is a precious, anomalous history.
Why that is the case isn’t simple. It’s partly the political culture of the colonies that would become the United States devising a government of distributed and counterbalancing power. It’s partly the restraining example of an extraordinary individual during state formation, giving time for civilian institutions and military norms to form and strengthen. It’s partly structural factors such as geographic expanse, rival and dispersed urban and commercial centers, and a benign international security environment coupled with urgent domestic insecurity (the “insider threat” of conflict with Native Americans) resulting in a weak federal army and strong militia. It’s partly adroit politicians demonstrating the skills that make them successful and simply outplaying ambitious military aspirants.
Which is to say that the American experience has proven beneficial and durable — but difficult for other states to emulate.
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