Soldiers,States,and Structures: The End of the Cold War and Weakening U.S. Civilian Control

Abstract

While there is no "crisis" in U.S. post-Cold War civil-military relations, it seems clear that the United States is now experiencing a weakening in civilian control of the military, at least compared with the Cold War. In a previous article, I argued that militaries with primarily external missions were more amenable to civilian control than militaries with internal missions. This article looks in more detail at how variation in international and domestic threats affects the strength of civilian control of the military relations as well as the role that military doctrine plays in strengthening or weakening civilian control in structurally indeterminate threat environments. My argument is that in structurally indeterminate threat environments, externally oriented military doctrines are necessary, but not sufficient, conditions for civilian control of the military.