UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
SS 472
CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS, ANCIENT AND MODERN
COURSE SYLLABUS
AY 15-2
Dr. Hugh Liebert
Course Director
Lincoln Hall, Room 217
hugh.liebert@usma.edu
(845) 938-2996
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Who shall guard the guardians? SS 472, “Civil-Military Relations, Ancient and Modern” (also known as “The
Soldier and the State”) examines a series of answers to this question, within both the long tradition of Western
political philosophy and the more recent development of American political science. Among the questions to be
considered are: What is the essential difference between civilians and soldiers? Is there (or ought there) to be such a
difference? How do differences in political regime – e.g., aristocracy vs. democracy – and political form – e.g., city
vs. nation – shape relations between the military and the society it serves? What notions of civil-military relations
lie at the foundation of the American regime? How do these ideas relate to the intellectual traditions that informed
the American founders? Is there today a “crisis” in U.S. civil-military relations? If so, what are the potential
consequences for the American regime? How do civil-military relations in “developing” countries differ from those
in the United States and other “developed” nations? How can policies designed to foster healthy civil-military
relations in developing countries succeed or fail?
CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS, ANCIENT AND MODERN
2
COURSE GOALS
The American Politics (AP) Program in the Department of Social Sciences list as one of its five primary outcomes
that it will educate, train, and inspire cadets to:
Understand U.S. civil-military relations by emphasizing the roles, responsibilities, and culture of the
military as an institution, and profession, and the enduring norms, behavior, and models of military
leadership that formulate, legitimate, and implement public policy consistent with American republican
traditions.
To achieve this overarching goal, SS472 is designed to improve cadets’ capacity to do the following:
o Discuss the major theories of ancient and modern civil-military relations and the strengths and weaknesses
of those theories;
o Describe the nature of civil-military relations in the United States and explain key concepts associated with
officership and the military as a profession;
o Describe the roles and responsibilities of the military, both as a profession and as a bureaucratic entity, as
established in the U.S. Constitution;
o Understand the challenges officers face in civil-military relations at the strategic (agenda-setting),
operational (formulation and legitimization), and tactical (implementation) levels as a political actor within
the U.S. national security and strategy-making enterprise;
o Explain the explicit and implicit connections of civil-military relations to American politics and the
importance of American constitutionalism, institutions, and groups for advancing those relations.
REQUIREMENTS
1. Participation
a. Class Discussion/Reading
b. In-class Presentations
c. Group Projects
d. Scribe duties
2. Research Paper
a. Topic Paragraph
b. Outline
c. Final Paper
d. Lecture based on paper
400
(40%)
150
100
100
50
(15%)
(10%)
(10%)
(5%)
600
(60%)
50
100
300
150
(5%)
(10%)
(30%)
(15%)
No more than one page, due Lesson 11
No more than five pages, due Lesson 21
Ten pages, due Lesson 40
Ten minutes, delivered during TEE period
TEXTS
A significant amount of the assigned course reading will be found on line. Please refer to the course web page for
links to course readings other than the texts listed here.
1. Huntington, The Soldier and the State, Harvard University Press.
2. Feaver, Armed Servants, Harvard University Press.
CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS, ANCIENT AND MODERN
3
SYLLABUS OF READINGS
Introduction
Date
Readings
Topic
Lesson
7 Jan
1
What are
“civil-military
relations”?
Required
• Feaver, “Civil Military Relations,”
Annual Review of Political Science
1999, Vol. 2: pp. 211-44.
• Hastings, “The Runaway General,”
Rolling Stone
• Obama, “Statement by the President in
the Rose Garden,” 23 June 2010
Recommended
• “Memorandum for the Inspector
General, Department of the Army”
(Department of Defense review of
Rolling Stone incident), 8 April 2011
• Ulrich, “The General Stanley
McChrystal Affair: A Case-Study in
Civil-Military Relations,” Parameters,
Spring 2011, Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 86101.
• Bumiller, “After War Room, Heading
Ivy League Classroom,” New York
Times, 6 May 2012.
9 Jan
2
The CivilMilitary Gap:
The Case of
Coriolanus I
• Plutarch, Life of Coriolanus
• Gordon, “General Details Pentagon
Tensions With Obama on
Afghanistan,” New York Times, 5
January 2013
• Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 2.31.7-40
• Plutarch, Life of Alcibiades
• Plutarch, Comparison of Alcibiades
and Coriolanus
13 Jan
3
The CivilMilitary Gap:
The Case of
Coriolanus II
• Fiennes (dir.), Coriolanus (2011)
• Shakespeare, Coriolanus
• Eliot, Coriolan (1931)
• Brecht, Coriolanus (1972 [1951-3])
• King and Franssen, eds., Shakespeare
and War (2008)
• Cantor, Shakespeare’s Rome: Republic
and Empire (1976)
• Jorgensen, Shakespeare’s Military
World (1956)
CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS, ANCIENT AND MODERN
4
Block 1: Civil-Military Relations in the History of Political Thought
Date
Readings
Topic
Lesson
15 Jan
The “Spartan
Mirage”
Required
• Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus
Recommended
• Plutarch, Sayings of Spartans and
Sayings of Spartan Women
4
• Starr, “The Credibility of Early Spartan
History,” Historia, Bd. 14, H. 3 (Jul.,
1965), pp. 257-272.
• Cartledge, “The Birth of the Hoplite:
Sparta’s Contribution to Early Greek
Military Organization,” in Spartan
Reflections (2001)
• Pressfield, Gates of Fire (1998)
20 Jan
5
Plato: The
Education of
the Guardians
• Plato, Republic
Review Books 2-4 and 8, with
particular attention to these passages:
∙ 2.369a-383b
∙ 3 (entire)
∙ 4.419a-425a, 427c-429c
∙ 8.543a-550b
• Plato, Laches
• Plato, Laws, especially:
∙ 4.706a-707d
∙ 5.753b
∙ 6.785b
∙ 12.942a-945b
• Raaflaub, “Warfare and Athenian
Society,” chap. 4 in The Cambridge
Companion to the Age of Pericles, ed.
Sammons (2007).
• Vidal-Naquet, The Black Hunter
(1986)
∙ Chap. 4, “The Tradition of the
Athenian Hoplite” (pp. 85-105)
∙ Chap. 5, “The Black Hunter and the
Origin of the Athenian Ephebia”
22 Jan
6
Aristotle: The
Regime and
the CitizenSoldier
• Aristotle, Politics
∙ Book 2, Chap. 9
∙ Book 3, Chaps. 1-8
∙ Book 4, Chap. 13 (1297b1-35)
∙ Books 7-8
• Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
∙ 2.4-7 (1105b20-1108b10)
∙ 3.9-12 (1115a4-1117b22)
• Hans van Wees, “War and Society,” in
The Cambridge History of Greek and
Roman Warfare, vol. 1, pp. 273-302.
• Barry Strauss, “The Athenian Trireme,
School of Democracy,” in
Dêmokratia, eds. J. Ober and C.
Hedrick (1996)
CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS, ANCIENT AND MODERN
5
Date
Readings
Topic
Lesson
26 Jan
7
Polybius:
Mixed
Regimes and
Military
Camps
Required
Recommended
• Polybius, History Book 6
• Keppie, The Making of the Roman
Army (1984)
∙ Chap. 1, “The Army of the Roman
Republic” (pp. 14-56)
• Walbank, Polybius (1972)
∙ Chap. 5, “The Sixth Book” (pp.13056)
• Walbank, Polybius, Rome, and the
Hellenistic World (2002)
∙ Chap. 18, “A Greek Looks at Rome:
Polybius VI Revisited” (pp. 277-92)
28 Jan
8
Case Study 1
• Plutarch, Life of Caesar
• Keppie, The Making of the Roman
Army (1984)
The Fall of the
Roman
Republic – the
Case of Caesar
• Alston, “The Military and Politics,” in
The Cambridge History of Greek and
Roman Warfare, vol. 2, pp. 176-97.
∙ Chap. 2, “Marius’s Mules” (pp. 5779)
∙ Chap. 3, “Caesar’s Conquest of
Gaul” (pp. 80-102)
∙ Chap. 4, “Civil War (pp. 103-31)
• Plutarch, Life of Brutus
• Salutati, C. (1964 [1400]) “De
Tyranno.” In E. Emerton, ed.,
Humanism and Tyranny: Studies in the
Italian Trecento.
• [Trenchard and Gordon], Cato’s
Letters (1720-3)
∙ No. 56, “A Vindication of Brutus, for
Having Killed Caesar (pp. 376-88)
30 Jan
DROP
9
3 Feb
10
One’s Own
Arms:
Machiavelli I
• Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy (1531)
∙ Book 1, chaps. 1-6, 28-32
∙ Book 2, chaps. 10, 18, 20, 33
∙ Book 3, chaps. 13-17, 24
• Gilbert, “Machiavelli: The Renaissance
of the Art of War,” chap. 1 in Makers
of Modern Strategy (1986)
• Howard, War in European History
(1976)
• Machiavelli, Prince (1532)
∙ Chaps. 12-14
∙ Chaps. 19-20
∙ Chap. 2, “The Wars of the
Mercenaries” (pp. 20-37)
CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS, ANCIENT AND MODERN
6
Date
Readings
Topic
Lesson
5 Feb
11
One’s Own
Arms (cont.):
Machiavelli II
Required
• Machiavelli, Art of War (1519-20)
∙ Preface
∙ Book 1
∙ Book 7.152-249
Recommended
• Viroli, Niccolò’s Smile, pp. 67-90, 1036, 119-30
• Machiavelli, Prince
∙ Chap. 26, especially ¶4
9 Feb
12
Ghosts and
Professionals:
Liberalism
• Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)
Review entire work, with particular
attention to these passages:
∙ Chap. 6, ¶ 1-18
∙ Chap. 10, ¶48-54
∙ Chap. 11, ¶1-4
∙ Chap. 13
∙ Chap. 14, ¶1-5, 29-31
∙ Chap. 17
∙ Chap. 18, ¶12-13
∙ Chap. 21
∙ Chap. 23, ¶1-5
∙ Chap. 29, ¶14, 20, 23
∙ Chap. 30, ¶ 8, 23-30
∙ Chap. 46, ¶35-6
∙ “A Review and Conclusion”
• Smith, Wealth of Nations
∙ Book 1, chap. 1
(pp. 13-30)
∙ Book 5, chap. 1, part 1
(pp. 689-708)
11 Feb
13
The Modern
CitizenSoldier:
Republicanism
I
• Rousseau, First Discourse (1750)
• Rousseau, Considerations on the
Government of Poland (written 1772)
∙ Chaps. 1-4
∙ Chap. 12
• Locke, Second Treatise
∙ §88 (chap. 7)
∙ §107-11 (chap. 8)
∙ §128-31 (chap. 9)
∙ §135-40 (chap. 11)
∙ §144-8 (chap. 12)
∙ §151-3
∙ §175-243 (chaps. 16-19)
• Howard, War in European History
(1976)
∙ Chap. 3, “The Wars of the
Merchants” (pp. 38-53)
∙ Chap. 4, “The Wars of the
Professionals” (pp. 54-74)
• Earle, “Adam Smith, Alexander
Hamilton, Friedrich List: The
Economic Foundations of Military
Power,” chap. 8 in Makers of Modern
Strategy (1986)
• Plattner, “Rousseau and the Origins of
Nationalism,” chap. 9 in The Legacy
of Rousseau, eds. Orwin and Tarcov
(1997)
CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS, ANCIENT AND MODERN
7
Date
Readings
Topic
Lesson
13 Feb
14
The Modern
Citizen-Soldier
(cont.):
Republicanism
II
Required
• Harrington, The Commonwealth of
Oceana (1656)
∙ “The Introduction or Order of the
Work” (pp. 3-7)
∙ “The Second Part of the
Preliminaries” (pp. 43-68)
∙ “Thirteenth Order” in “The Model of
the Commonwealth of Oceana” (pp.
101-14)
Recommended
• Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment
(1975)
∙ Chap. 11, “The Anglicization of the
Republic: A) Mixed Constitution,
State and Citizen” (pp. 361-400)
∙ Chap. 12, “The Anglicization of the
Republic: B) Court, Country and
Standing Army” (pp. 401-22)
• Nedham, The Excellencie of a FreeState (1656)
∙ “Errors of Government; And Rules of
Policie” (pp. 75-92)
• [Trenchard and Gordon], Cato’s Letters
(1720-3)
∙ No. 64, “Trade and Naval Power the
Offspring of Civil Liberty, and
Cannot Subsist Without It” (pp. 44250)
∙ No. 65, “Military Virtue Produced and
Supported by Civil Liberty Only” (pp.
450-62)
∙ No. 94, “Against Standing Armies”
(pp. 699-77)
∙ No. 95, “Further Reasonings against
Standing Armies” (pp. 677-87)
18 Feb
Case Study 2
15
The Rise and
Fall of the
English
Republic – the
Case of
Cromwell
• Hume, The History of England (175462)
• Gaunt, Oliver Cromwell, especially
chap. 4, “Politics and the Army, 16461649” (pp. 67-105)
∙ Vol. 6, Chaps. 60-2
• Macaulay, The History of England
(1848)
• Woolrych, “The Cromwellian
Protectorate: A Military
Dictatorship?” History 75 (1990): 20731.
∙ Chap. 1, part 6
• Woolrych, Soldiers and Statesmen:
The General Council of the Army and
Its Debates, 1647-1648 (1987)
• Gentles, The New Model Army in
England, Ireland, and Scotland, 164553 (1992)
CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS, ANCIENT AND MODERN
8
II. American Civil-Military Relations
Date
Readings
Topic
Lesson
20 Feb
16
Standing
Armies and
Militias:
U.S. Founding
I
Required
• Washington, “Newburgh Address”
(1783)
Recommended
• [Madison], Notes on Debates in the
Federal Convention of 1787, Reported
by James Madison (1966 [1787])
• U.S. Constitution (1787), especially
∙ Article I, Section 8
∙ Article II
∙ 1 June 1787, 45-8
∙ 18 June 1787, esp. 139
∙ 18 Aug, 478-85
∙ 23 Aug 1787, 512-16
• Kohn, “The Constitution and National
Security: The Intent of the Framers,” in
The United States Military Under the
Constitution of the United States, 17891989, ed. R. Kohn (1991).
24 Feb
17
Standing
Armies and
Militias
(cont.): U.S.
Founding II
• [Madison, Hamilton, and Jay],
Federalist Papers (1787-8)
∙ Nos. 3-4
∙ Nos. 7-8
∙ No. 24
∙ No. 26
∙ No. 34
∙ No. 41
• Storing, What the Anti-Federalists
Were For (1981), especially
∙ Chap. 4, “Union” (pp. 24-37)
• Henry, “Speech Before the Virginia
Ratifying Convention,” 5 June 1788
• The Complete Anti-Federalist (1787-8)
∙ Aristocrotis, 3.16.7-12
∙ DeWitt, 4.3.24-32
26 Feb
18
Do Military
Academies
Threaten the
Republic?
The Jacksonian
Era
• Hamilton, “Letter to James McHenry,”
23 Nov 1799
• Ambrose, Duty, Honor, Country (1999
[1966])
∙ Chap. 6, “The Jacksonians and the
Academy”
• Tocqueville, Democracy in America,
Vol. 2, Part 3, chaps. 22-6
• Ricks, “Why We Should Get Rid of
West Point,” Washington Post, 19
April 2009
• Nelson, “The Case for the Academies,”
Claremont Review of Books, 4 October
2010
CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS, ANCIENT AND MODERN
9
Date
Readings
Topic
Lesson
2 March
20
Recommended
DROP
19
4 March
Required
Case Study 3
U.S. CivilMilitary
Relations in
the Civil War –
the Case of
Lincoln
• Lincoln, “The Perpetuation of Our
Political Institutions: Address Before
the Young Men’s Lyceum of
Springfield, Illinois,” 27 January 1838
• Cohen, Supreme Command (2002)
∙ Chap. 2, “Lincoln Sends a Letter”
(pp. 15-51)
• Lincoln, “Letter to Major General
Hooker,” 26 January 1863
• Lincoln, “Gettysburg Address,” 19
November 1863
• Lincoln, “Letter to Mrs. Bixby,” 21
November 1864
• Stanton, “Letter to U.S. Grant,” 3
March 1865
6 March
21
Professionalism and Its
Alternatives
• Snider, “The Army as Profession and
Bureaucracy,” pp. 13-16, in “The U.S.
Army as a Profession,” chap. 1 of The
Future of the Army Profession, ed.
Matthews (2005)
• Huntington, Soldier and the State
(1957)
∙ Introduction
∙ Part One, Chapters 1-2 (pp. 1-58)
• Meier, “Bureaucracy and Democracy:
The Case for More Bureaucracy and
Less Democracy,” Public
Administration Review 57:3 (May-June
1997): 193-9.
10
March
22
Objective
Control I
• Huntington, Soldier and the State
(1957)
∙ Part One, Chapters 3-4 (pp. 59-97)
∙ Part Two, Chapters 6 (pp. 143-62)
• Weigley, History of the United States
Army (1967)
∙ Chap. 8, “The Professionalization of
the Regular Army: 1821-46”
∙ Chap. 14, “The New Army: 18991914”
• Weigley, Towards an American Army
(1962)
∙ Chap. 7, “Emory Upton: The Major
Prophet of Professionalism” (pp.
100-26
∙ Chap. 9, “The Disciples of Emory
Upton” (pp. 137-61)
• Holborn, “The Prusso-German School:
Moltke and the Rise of the General
Staff,” chap. 10 in Makers of Modern
Strategy (1986)
• Howard, War in European History
(1976)
∙ Chap. 6, “The Wars of the Nations”
(pp. 94-115)
CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS, ANCIENT AND MODERN
10
Date
Readings
Topic
Lesson
12
March
Objective
Control II
Required
Recommended
• Huntington, Soldier and the State
(1957)
• Huntington, “Civilian Control and the
Constitution,” The Forum, Vol. 9, Iss.
3 (2011).
∙ Part Two, Chapters 7-9 (pp. 163-269)
∙ Part Three, Chapters 12-13, 17 (pp.
315-73, 456-66)
23
SPRING BREAK
23
March
24
25
March
DROP
Subjective
Control I
• Feaver, Armed Servants (2003)
∙ Chaps. 1-2 (pp. 1-53)
25
29
March
26
31
March
Subjective
Control II
Subjective
Control III
∙ Chap. 3 (pp. 54-95)
∙ Chap. 8 (pp. 283-302)
• Cohen, Supreme Command (2002)
∙ Chap. 1 (pp. 1-14)
∙ Appendix (pp. 241-64)
27
2 April
• Feaver, Armed Servants (2003)
Social Control
28
• Friedberg, “Why Didn’t the United
States Become a Garrison State?”
International Security, Vol. 16, No. 4
(Spring, 1992): pp. 109-42.
• Janowitz, The Professional Soldier
(1960)
∙ Chap. 1, “Professionals in Violence,”
(pp. 3-17)
• Review: Tocqueville, Democracy in
America, Vol. 2, Part 3, chaps. 22-6
6 April
DROP
29
8 April
30
Case Study 4
• Truman, “Diary Entries: 6-7 April
1951,” in Truman Papers
U.S. CivilMilitary
Relations in
the Cold War –
the Case of
MacArthur
• Truman, “Proposed Draft Messages to
Frank Pace, Douglas MacArthur, and
Matthew Ridgway, c. April 1951,” in
Truman Papers
• MacArthur, “Address to Congress, 19
April 1951 (aka, the “Old Soldiers
Never Die” speech)
• Manchester, American Caesar (1978)
∙ Preamble, “Reveille” (pp. 3-11)
∙ Chap. 1, “Ruffles and Flourishes”
(pp. 39-79)
∙ Chap. 10, “Recall” (pp. 629-77)
CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS, ANCIENT AND MODERN
11
Date
Readings
Topic
Lesson
10 April
Dissent
31
Required
Recommended
• Snider, “Dissent and Strategic
Leadership of the Military Professions,”
Strategic Studies Institute, United
States Army War College (2008): pp. 146.
• McMaster, Dereliction of Duty (1997)
• Brooks, “Militaries and Political
Activity in Democracies,” in American
Civil-Military Relations, eds. Nielsen
and Snider (2009)
• Wilson, “Being the ‘Good Soldier,’”
Democracy Arsenal, 15 April 2006
• Ricks, “Army Historian Cites Lack of
Postwar Plan,” Washington Post, 25
December 2004
• Yingling, “A Failure in Generalship,”
Armed Forces Journal (May 2007)
• Dunlap, “The Origins of the American
Military Coup of 2012,” Parameters,
Winter 1992-3: pp. 107-25.
14 April
32
16 April
33
Institutions
Conscription
and the AllVolunteer
Force
• Zegart, "Origins of the Joint Chief of
Staff: 'Fighting for the Very Life of the
Navy'"
• Congressional Budget Office, The AllVolunteer Force: Issues and
Performance, July 2007, pp. 1-36
• Korb and Segal, “Manning and
Financing the Twenty-First-Century
All-Volunteer Force,” Daedalus 140:3
(Summer 2011): pp. 75-87
• Dempsey, Our Army (2010)
∙ Chap. 4, “An Overview of Army
Demographics” (pp. 34-44)
• Golby and Liebert, “Midlife Crisis? The
AVF at Forty”
• Bacevich, “Whose Army?” Daedalus,
Volume 140, Issue 3 (Summer 2011):
pp. 122-34.
• Rangel, “Bring Back the Draft,” New
York Times, 31 December 2002.
• Gates, “Lecture at Duke University (AllVolunteer Force),” 29 September 2010
• “The Report of the President’s
Commission on an All-Volunteer
Force” (aka the Gates Commission
Report) (1970), especially:
∙ Introduction (p. 1)
∙ Chap. 2, “The Debate” (pp. 11-20)
• Rostker, I Want You! The Evolution of
the All-Volunteer Force (2006),
especially:
∙ Chap. 4, “The President’s
Commission on an All-Volunteer
Armed Force – the Gates
Commission – and Selective Service
Reform (1969-1970)” (pp. 61-97)
• Nixon, “Special Message to the
Congress on Draft Reform,” 23 April
1970
• Owens, U.S. Civil-Military Relations
After 9/11 (2011)
∙ Chap. 4, “Who Serves?” (pp. 128-71)
• Rostker, I Want You! The Evolution of
the All-Volunteer Force (2006)
∙ Chap. 19, “Why Has the AllVolunteer Force Been a Success?”
(pp. 745-57)
CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS, ANCIENT AND MODERN
12
Date
Readings
Topic
Lesson
20 April
Required
Recommended
RESEARCH DROP: AI and Paper Composition
34
22 April
RESEARCH DROP: AI and Paper Composition
35
27 April
RESEARCH DROP: AI and Paper Composition
36
Block 3: Civil-Military Relations in the Developing World
29 April
Praetorianism
I
37
• Thomas, "Coups and Constitutions:
Military Power and Civilian Control in
Developing Countries"
• Nordlinger, Soldiers in Politics:
Military Coups and Governments
(1977)
• Huntington, Political Order in
Changing Societies (1968)
• Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire (1776)
∙ “Political Stability: Civic and
Praetorian Politics,” pp. 78-92
∙ Chap. 4, “Praetorianism and Political
Decay,” pp. 192-263
4 May
Praetorianism
II
∙ Chap. 5
• Review Machiavelli, Prince, chap. 19
• North, Wallis, and Weingast, Violence
and Social Orders (2006)
38
∙ Chap. 1, “The Conceptual
Framework” (pp.1-29)
∙ Chap. 4.5, “Control of Violence in
Open Access Orders” (pp. 121-2)
∙ 5.5, “Doorstep Condition #3:
Consolidated Control of the Military”
(pp. 169-81)
6 May
Case Study 5
39
U.S. Policy
Towards
Foreign
Militaries:
Lessons
Learned in
Iraq and
Afghanistan
• Readings TBD
8 May
Review and Conclusion
40