[3] Indeed, the most recent Routledge Handbook of Civil-Military Relations contains no substantive treatment of NATO, the UN, or any other organization. Again, exceptions to this include Ryan Hendrickson’s 2006 book on the role of the NATO Secretary General, which explicitly includes civil-military relations in its analytical frame. Hew Strachan lamented this in his own considerations on civil-military relations, noting how the near-ubiquitous Huntingtonian constitutional framework of civil-military relations is predicated on the unique situation of the United States in the early- to mid-1950s. Fully comprehending the civil-military relations of multilateral organizations requires accessing and understanding a broader array of primary sources. Applying the lens of NATO’s civil-military relations lends a new angle on understanding the alliance’s failure to defeat the Taliban.

Source: Washington Post December 13, 2023 05:02 UTC