Civil-Military Relations in War College Curricula

In: Armed forces & society, Band 27, Heft 2, S. 273-294

Abstract

This article accepts the norms related to civil-military relations that Don Snider et al. propose in this special issue as being the appropriate norms for professional military officers. It then reviews the curricula of the six war colleges to see what they are currently teaching about civil-military relations and about civilian society. Next, it examines the views about those relations that war college students report themselves as actually holding. Some of these, i.e., findings related to officers' views about not obeying directives they believe "unethical but legal" and their willingness to obey "unwise" commands may seem to contradict the norm of civilian control. Others that are related to officer responsibility to "advocate" and to "insist" on some policy matters also seem to contradict these norms. The article concludes with some recommendations for curriculum revision.