NEWPORT, R.I. – The senior-level course at U.S. Naval War College (NWC) held a panel discussion session for students to better understand the vital relations between civilian and military sections of the government, Jan. 6.
The National Security Decision Making (NSDM) course invited two experts in building civilian-military relationships to discuss how to make these interactions constructive for both parties.
The goal of the panel discussion was to examine civilian-military relations by getting perspectives from former civilian political appointees who have engaged in national-level policymaking. The event was also intended to help students understand how military officers and civilian policymakers interact at the policymaking level.
“We are hoping the students will realize that civilian-military relations are very important,” said Jessica Blankshain, assistant professor of National Security Affairs and moderator of the event. “And these relations are going to matter for them once they are on a staff and involved in high-level policy making.”
The two panel members, Kori Schake and Rosa Brooks, were selected as they both have high-level policy experience, and both published recent books and articles examining civilian-military relations.
Neither are currently serving in government positions, allowing them to speak more openly about their experiences.
Brooks, a professor of law at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. and senior fellow at the New America Foundation, said this is an interesting time in civilian-military relations.
“At a moment when the lines between civilian and military have gotten blurrier than ever, it is important to have informed, thoughtful creative discussions about what we mean by civilian control of the military,” she said.
The two made remarks and then took questions from the students during the presentation.
Schake, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, said that as careers unfold, civilian-military skills become more valuable.
“For most military people, they haven’t had the experience yet in their careers in high policy decision making,” she said. “These students are moving into the stages of their careers where they will be crafting plans that they will have to get civilian approval of and involvement in. And they will have more and more interactions with civilian leaders and elected and appointed civilians.”
The session was really an effort to “try to bridge the gap between theory and practice,” added Blankshain. “They [students] have read the classics on the subject and they’ve been exposed to the broad literature. This is really getting them to see how it works in the real world.”
Schake added that good intentions often get lost in translation in civilian-military interactions.
“So much of the friction of civilian-military relationships is often because well-meaning people on opposites sides of the divide are speaking languages that they think the other understands and they don’t,” she said.