 | Crisis, Agency, and Law in US Civil-Military Relations 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. Major Dan Maurer is a combat veteran, former engineer officer, and has practiced military law as a prosecutor in courts-martial, as an appellate counsel, and in leadership positions within the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps. He is a contributing author at the United States Military Academy's Modern War Institute. |
