The State and The Soldier
From This Means War by Peter Roberts
August 12, 2025 · 41 min · Season 6 · Episode 5
About this episode
Kori Schake discusses her book 'The State and The Soldier' and analyzes US civil-military relations throughout history.
That the military is subordinate to political (civil) authority seems like a no brainer. Headlines are made when challenges to this norm occur (see Trump 47 as an example), but those challenges have been more frequent and more dangerous in American history. Indeed, General Washington's principles of military subordination have had a myriad of challengers over the last 250 years: but the institutions have come through and self-corrected where necessary. In talking about her new book "The State and The Soldier", Kori Schake provides a quite excellent riposte to Samual Huntington's essay "The Soldier and The State". Her analysis of US civil-military relations since the Founding Fathers is a compelling read, and one that should be required reading (especially for those prone to over-excitement and clickbait headlines).
People in this episode
Host: Peter Roberts
Guest: Kori Schake
Topics covered
- civil-military relations
- political authority
- military history
- US history
- subordination
- book discussion
Keywords
- civil-military relations
- political authority
- Kori Schake
- General Washington
- Samual Huntington
- military history
- US history
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: The State and The Soldier, The Soldier and The State
Places: America
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