Choosing Your Battles

American Civil-Military Relations and the Use of Force

Häftad, Engelska, 2005

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America's debate over whether and how to invade Iraq clustered into civilian versus military camps. Top military officials appeared reluctant to use force, the most hawkish voices in government were civilians who had not served in uniform, and everyone was worried that the American public would not tolerate casualties in war. This book shows that this civilian-military argument--which has characterized earlier debates over Bosnia, Somalia, and Kosovo--is typical, not exceptional. Indeed, the underlying pattern has shaped U.S. foreign policy at least since 1816. The new afterword by Peter Feaver and Christopher Gelpi traces these themes through the first two years of the current Iraq war, showing how civil-military debates and concerns about sensitivity to casualties continue to shape American foreign policy in profound ways.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2005-09-11
Mått152 x 235 x 17 mm
Vikt397 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor248
FörlagPrinceton University Press
ISBN9780691124278

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LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vii PREFACE xi CHAPTER ONE Introduction 1 CHAPTER TWO The Civil-Military Opinion Gap over the Use of Force 21 CHAPTER THREE The Impact of Elite Veterans on American Decisions to Use Force 64 CHAPTER FOUR Casualty Sensitivity and Civil-Military Relations 95 CHAPTER FIVE Exploring the Determinants of Casualty Sensitivity 149 CHAPTER SIX Conclusion 184 REFERENCES 215 NAME INDEX 229 SUBJECT INDEX 233

"[A] highly statistical but thankfully lucid study... [The authors] find that non-veteran civilian elites are more likely to advocate the use of force than either military elites or civilian leaders with military experience... The pattern holds historically. The authors consider a total of 111 instances from 1816 to 1992."--Chronicle of Higher Education "Feaver and Gelpi offer important insights into the character of civil-military relations in the U.S. and into its effects on the nature of U.S. foreign policy... [A]n important work whose findings have wide-ranging policy implications."--Spencer D. Bakich, Virginia Quarterly Review "Feaver and Gelpi's intriguing and well-executed study provides a welcome contribution to scholarship in this area. In it, the authors address a subset of provocative issues within the broader study of American civil-military relations."--Risa A. Brooks, Review of Politics