Crisis, Agency, and Law in Us Civil-Military Relations, (Paperback)

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.