Pursuing Civilian Control Over the Military

• Author: Donald S. Travis
• DOI: 10.1177/0095327X18781539
• Published date: 01 July 2019
• Date: 01 July 2019
• Subject Matter: Commentaries

Commentary

Pursuing Civilian Control

Over the Military

Donald S. Travis

1

Abstract

This essay is responding to Dr. Ionut Popescu’s review of the article “Saving Samuel

Huntington and the Need for Pragmatic Civil-Military Relations.” He challenges the

pragmatist outlook by questioning its usefulness to “manage relations between the

military and its civilian superiors in a democracy such as the United States.” Based on

the concerns of Morris Janowitz regarding military relations, three assertions are

made in defense of the pragmatic approach. First, the choice between “professional

versus civilian supremacy” for making crucial decisions during wartime is misleading

because it is based on obsolete thinking from the twentieth-century Cold War.

Second, types of wars waged are determined by complex and provisional decision-

making processes amid political struggle. Third, Huntington’s civil–military theory

wrongly maligns the word “politics” by distorting its meaning and purpose. Politics is

a natural process and an essential feature of democracy.

Keywords

coups and conflicts, democracy, militarism, military effectiveness, military

organization, public policy, civil–military relations

This essay is responding to Dr. Ionut Popescu’s disputatio sine fine for the article

“Saving Samuel Huntington and the Need for Pragmatic Civil-Military Relations.”

He challenges the pragmatist outlook by questioning its usefulness to “manage

relations between the military and its civilian superiors in a democracy such as the

1

Carlisle, PA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Donald S. Travis, 89 E. Ridge St., Carlisle, PA 17013, USA.

Email: dontravis752@yahoo.com

Armed Forces & Society

2019, Vol. 45(3) 546-560

ªThe Author(s) 2018

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0095327X18781539

journals.sagepub.com/home/afs