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Silent Coup of the Guardians: The Influence of U.S. Military Elites on National Security
Schmidt, Todd A
Schmidt, Todd A
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Abstract
Understanding U.S. national security and foreign policy decision-making requires understanding the actors in the process. Extant scholarship examines the role and behavior of the President; influence of civilian elites, advisors, bureaucracies, and institutions; and, more limitedly, the impact of civil-military relations on policy. There are no investigations, however, into the role and behavior of U.S. military elites, as a well-defined, homogenous group of actors in the policy process. This dissertation contributes to filling this gap. It examines military elites utilizing an exclusive ‘insider academic research’ approach. In a grounded theory methodology, over 100 interviews are conducted with national security elites from the Reagan administration to the present. Elite interviews are conducted with the military, diplomatic corps, intelligence community, academia, think tanks, as well as current and past National Security Council staff and leadership. The findings demonstrate two propositions. First, military elites constitute an epistemic community and, second, as an epistemic community, they play a unique role with exceptional influence over both policy process and outcome. These findings help explain nuanced relationships between military elites, the President, and Congress; decision-making in national security and foreign policy; and civil-military balance of power relations that suggest a potential trend of praetorian behavior among U.S. military elites.
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Date
2019-08-31
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University of Kansas
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Keywords
International relations, Public policy, Military studies, community, elite, epistemic, military, national, security