Crisis, Agency, and Law in US Civil-Military Relations A Necessary Measure

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 Relationships--in Form And Practice--as Part Of A Wider Principal (civilian)-agency (military) Dynamic, The Book Tracks The Duties--care, Competence, Diligence, Confidentiality, Scope Of Responsibility--and Perceived Shortcomings In The Interactions Between Us Civilian Political Authorities And Their Military Advisors In Both Peacetime And In War. Introduction -- The Opening Statement -- The Case-in-chief: What The Law Does (not) Say -- The Expert Witnesses: A Cross-examination -- The Expert Witnesses: The Fingerprints Of Agency -- The Rebuttal Witnesses: From Agency To Norms To Diagnosis -- Exhibit A: Scope Of Responsibility And Authority -- Boundaries, Or A Poverty Of Useful And Unambiguous Authority? -- Exhibit B: When Fidelity And Frankness Conflict -- Exhibit C: Amending The Goldwater-nichols Act -- Exhibit D: The Future Fallacy: A Civ-mil Dialogue -- Closing Argument. Daniel Maurer. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction....Pages 1-16 The Opening Statement....Pages 17-36 The Case-In-Chief: What the Law Does (Not) Say....Pages 37-74 The Expert Witnesses: A Cross-Examination....Pages 75-94 The Expert Witnesses: The Fingerprints of Agency....Pages 95-99 The Rebuttal Witnesses: From Agency to Norms to Diagnosis....Pages 101-108 Exhibit A: Scope of Responsibility and Authority....Pages 109-129 Boundaries, or a “Poverty of Useful and Unambiguous Authority”?....Pages 131-136 Exhibit B: When Fidelity and Frankness Conflict....Pages 137-153 Exhibit C: Amending the Goldwater-Nichols Act....Pages 155-176 Exhibit D: The Future Fallacy: A Civ-Mil Dialogue....Pages 177-210 Closing Argument....Pages 211-215 Back Matter....Pages 217-227 Annotation This work develops a responsible and practical method for evaluating the success, failure, or 'crisis' of American civil-military relations among its political and uniformed elite. Maurer'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