The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations (Belknap Press) | 
 enlarge | Author: Samuel P. Huntington
Publisher: Belknap Press
Category: Book
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Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 96981
Media: Paperback
Pages: 560
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 1.4
ISBN: 0674817362
Dewey Decimal Number: 342.73
EAN: 9780674817364
ASIN: 0674817362
Publication Date: August 12, 2008
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Product Description
In a classic work, Samuel P. Huntington challenges most of the old assumptions and ideas on the role of the military in society. Stressing the value of the military outlook for American national policy, Huntington has performed the distinctive task of developing a general theory of civil-military relations and subjecting it to rigorous historical analysis.
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 A quintessence of political administration November 3, 2008
Gautam Maitra (Kolkata, India)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Samuel Huntington's writings have always been incisive and animated by a spirit of the author's stupendous labor and a burning desire to project a true perspective of topics. The Soldier and the State is no exception. br / br /Every human society and for that matter every human civilization have evolved round this single issue of striking a balance between the civilian and the miltary sector and hence the debate rages round key political thoughts like liberalism and realism. This age old riddle is diificult to solve and the lone super power of the new millennium is still searching for an answer to this on a national and international level: whither hard power or soft power? br / br /Huntington's account of civilian and military history is studded with hard facts and comprehensive research works and this makes the book so interesting. He has picked up a topic that he felt from the core of his heart worth discussing. br / br /On a deeper level the issue strikes right into the heart of the American political thought. This is also dealt with in the opening chapter of the undersigned's book : Tracing the Eagle's Orbit. br / br /Professor Huntington is an institution by himself and this topic and this book is a must read for everybody. This would magnetically draw the reader to finish the pages of the book with bated breath and is sure to impact the reader's knowledge on political processes since the dawn of human history. br / br /Gautam Maitra br /Author of 'Tracing the Eagle's Orbit: Illuminating Insights into Major US Foreign policies since Independence.'
Needed for Military Research March 4, 2008
R. Shepherd (Annapolis, MD)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
For anyone interested in military research, this is a must have ... or must have access to. This book (as well as Janowitz: Professional Soldier) continues to be heavily referenced in the literature. It is definately a theory based book - not an easy read at times.
 Now that we are this book, here's what I say: February 9, 2003
Bruce P. Barten (Saint Paul, MN United States)
5 out of 47 found this review helpful
Everything is bad news if it comes with a deadline that isn't met. This book, THE SOLDIER AND THE STATE: THE THEORY AND POLITICS OF CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS by Samuel P. Huntington, a young Harvard professor in 1957, when the book first appeared, attempted to establish assumptions that would allow respectable consideration of policies that, in our world, might be used to define who we have become. My differences with this book might be ascribed to a theological framework in which this book is seen as having assumed the existence of hell on earth as the situation which people who voiced political aspirations that did not coincide with the prevailing superpower mentality would have to put up with. The famous Winston Churchill once said something about assumptions up with which he would not put, and the success of this book might be measured by how its views are assumed to be the American views in those parts of the world where America as a superpower is most unpopular.pThis review is being written in a short window of time in which the rulers of Saudi Arabia, whose success, so far, has been contingent on the opposite of liberal policies (they previously granted religious authorities who were considered the most conservative element within Arabian society a veto power over anything the government might do) are hoping that an American victory in Iraq might allow all American troops to be removed from Saudi Arabia, so that democracy might be granted to the people of Saudi Arabia (at a time when the average age is 15 years old) without fear that the anti-American views of Arabian young people will be the dominating political force determining the shape of the parties who will soon be able to demand more control than their government has ever been able to apply to society. As the situation in Venezuela at the moment illustrates, fights over how much oil is being pumped, and who ought to benefit from the economic miracle that oil provides, can do strange things in a nation with a democracy that attempts to let a majority of the people rule.pHuntington considers America an exception to such class considerations. Though not specifically concerned with the role of Blacks in American society, he assumes that their politics has been entirely liberal in nature. "No nascent group ever developed a radical ideology challenging the established order: it was always too quickly assimilated into that order. . . . Radicalism and conservatism were equally superfluous. Incipient and established groups both adhered to liberalism." (p. 145). The few attempts to establish conservative values in American history were mainly ignored by a society that was exuberantly growing in spite of any ideology which might attempt to exercise some form of control. The early part of the twentieth century had produced few instances in which policy had needed an exit strategy, and any attempt to find one in the index of THE SOLDIER AND THE STATE leads to the following entries:pExpertise, a characteristic of a profession, 8-9; of officership, 11-14pExtirpation, U.S. policy of, 155-156pEven page 154 has a bit on professionalism. As Woodrow Wilson said during World War I, "America has always boasted that she could find men to do anything. She is the prize amateur nation in the world. Germany is the prize professional nation in the world. Now, when it comes to doing new things and doing them well, I will back the amateur against the professional every time." The lure of popularity in a liberal society can easily produce this result. "In domestic politics each liberal group tends to identify the military with its own particular enemies. Without any recognized function in a liberal society and standing outside the ideological consensus, the military have been a universal target group." (p. 154). Extirpation is the name given to such a policy in this book. "Liberalism's injunction to the military has in effect been: conform or die. On the one hand, American liberalism has supported the virtual elimination of all institutions of violence and thus has attempted to do away with the problem of civil-military relations entirely. This is a policy of extirpation. On the other hand, when it has been necessary to maintain armed force, American liberalism has insisted upon a rigorous subjective civilian control, the refashioning of the military institutions along liberal lines so that they lose their peculiarly military characteristics. This is a policy of transmutation." (p. 155). There are no entries in the index for hyperbolic topics like sex, soldiers, or swearing, so there is little opportunity in this book for the ideas which strike me most, considering the unique psychic characteristics of the transmutation of the typical swinging Richard into a short-term ...assassin at Waco, Texas on April 19, 1993, or less notoriously, of any Naval doctor who kept a copy of the Kennedy autopsy photographs at Bethesda Naval Hospital in the ten years after this book first appeared, but I'm convinced that such ideas are within the realm of what is considered conservative in this book. Some people are sick of this kind of thing, and keep projecting its insanity on me, of all people, who tries to keep tying everything to the new direction of American society. I wonder if this makes us the entertainment capital of the world, or what?
The best book ever written on civil-military relations August 9, 2002
Daniel Jolley (Shelby, North Carolina USA)
28 out of 31 found this review helpful
At the time of its original publication in 1957, Samuel Huntington's The Soldier and the State reflected a new age in American history--the Cold War era. Huntington, a young Harvard professor of government, focused on policy problems concerning civilian direction of the military under the terms of the Cold War. Basically, he contended that traditional American liberalism was outdated and in fact had begun to pose a national security danger. Until this era, the absence of an overt military threat to American security allowed for a policy of civilian control of the military compatible with liberal democratic values. Traditionally, liberal solutions to domestic problems had likewise been applied to military problems, frequently resulting in failure.pHuntington offered a theoretical framework for modern civil-military relations. He insisted that liberalism was fundamentally opposed to the proper military ethic; the application of subjective civilian control over the military actually aimed at weakening military professionalism, which was viewed as a threat to democracy, liberalism, and American values. The Cold War, though, required America to keep a large national army during peace time; the army could not return to its traditionally subordinate role. There was perpetual tension between the demands of national security and the values of American liberalism: either American security must be compromised or the influence of liberalism weakened. Only a conservative environment allowed for equilibrium between political influence and the military professionalism that ensured national security. This balance could only be achieved, Huntington argued, by objective civilian control of the military. By maintaining independent spheres of power, with no fusion of civil and military control, national security goals could be maximized with a minimum sacrifice of social values. Objective civilian control allowed for the proper growth of military professionalism while keeping the military a subordinate tool of state policy. The fulcrum of civil-military relations was the relation of the officer corps to the state.pHuntington was successful in presenting the military as inherently conservative and unwarlike. The military prepared for war but never sought such engagement. Huntington encapsulated the premise of the military mindset as conservative realism. This mindset "holds that war is the instrument of politics, that the military are the servants of the statesman, and that civilian control is essential to military professionalism." This military ethic contrasted with the stereotype of the military as dangerously warlike. A weakness of the book is Huntington's description of military trends between the Civil War and the Great War. Huntington argued that the officer corps remained isolated during this period, allowing it to develop a professionalism free of civilian interference. This isolation theory has been largely disproved by pointing to the military's involvement in putting down labor strikes, relations between officers and the business community, etc. This defect should not detract from the importance of this book as a virgin exploration into a comprehensive history of the American military tradition. With its conservative thesis, it remains in my mind the seminal work on civil-military relations.
Seminal Treatise on the role of the Military in society March 7, 1999
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Incisive and remarkably relevant. Huntington delves into the role of the military in shaping and protecting a society. A MUST read for anyone who is in, or deals with the military.
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