The Soldier and the State

This book presents a theory of civil-military relations. The reader will find much historical material, on the United States primarily, but also on Europe and Asia. Yet this book does not attempts an historical description of civil-military relations in particular. It is, rather, as effort to develop a way of looking at and thinking about civil-military relation, in short, a theoretical framework. Understanding requires theory; theory requires abstraction; and abstraction requires the simplification and ordering of reality. No theory can explain all the facts, and, at times, the reader of this book may feel that its concepts and distinctions are drawn too sharply and precisely and are too far removed from reality. This collection of ideas is inadequate in that it fails to comprehend many important facts. The present volume is an effort to suggest a more useful and relevant framework and to raise and define the principal theoretical issues involved in the study of civil-military relations. Its most important purpose will be served if it stimulates further thinking about civil-military relations and national security. In a classic work, Samuel P. Huntington challenges most of the old assumptions and ideas on the role of the military in society… Huntington has performed the distinctive task of developing a general theory of civil-military relations and subjecting it to rigorous historical analysis.