civil-military relations

"When Phil Klay left the Marines a decade ago, after serving as an officer in Iraq, he found himself part of the community of veterans who have no choice but to grapple with the meaning of their wartime experiences-for themselves and for the country. American identity has always been bound up in war-from the revolutionary war of our founding, to the civil war that ended slavery, to the two world wars that launched America as a superpower. What did the current wars say about who we are as a country, and how should we respond as citizens? Unlike previous eras of war, few other Americans have had to do any real grappling with the endless, invisible wars of the post-9/11 world at all; in fact, increasingly, few people are even aware they are still going on. It's as if there's a dark star with a strong gravitational force that draws a relatively small number of soldiers and their families into its orbit, while remaining inconspicuous to most other Americans. In the meantime, the consequences of American military action abroad may be out of sight and out of mind, but they are very real indeed. This chasm between military and civilian in American life, and the moral blind spot it has created, is one of the great themes of Uncertain Ground, Phil Klay's powerful series of reckonings in essay form over the past ten years with some of our country's thorniest concerns. In the name of what do we ask young Americans to kill, and to die? In the name of what does this country hang together? As we see at every turn in these pages, those two questions have a great deal to do with one another, and how we answer them will go a long way toward deciding where our troubled country goes from here"--.

Examines Argentina's "Dirty War," analyzing the causes and describing the intrigues that undermined the military regime, its retreat from power, and the human rights trials that were held under the new democratic government.

This revelatory history of the elusive National Security Council shows how staffers operating in the shadows have driven foreign policy clandestinely for decades. When Michael Flynn resigned in disgrace as the Trump administration's national security advisor the New York Times referred to the National Security Council as "the traditional center of management for a president's dealings with an uncertain world." Indeed, no institution or individual in the last seventy years has exerted more influence on the Oval Office or on the nation's wars than the NSC, yet until the explosive Trump presidency, few Americans could even name a member. With key analysis, John Gans traces the NSC's rise from a collection of administrative clerks in 1947 to what one recent commander-in-chief called the president's "personal band of warriors." A former Obama administration speechwriter, Gans weaves extensive archival research with dozens of news-making interviews to reveal the NSC's unmatched power, which has resulted in an escalation of hawkishness and polarization, both in Washington and the nation at large.

"Takes readers inside six landmark battles that offer...insight into our nation's history"--Dust jacket.

Tells the story of Antietam, reportedly the bloodiest one-day battle in the course of the Civil War, focusing on the devastating impact of the fight on the civilian population of Sharpsburg, Maryland and the surrounding area.

Recounts the experiences of civilians whose lives were disrupted by America's entry into wars in the pre-Civil War era, exploring how American citizens dealt with shortages, privations, and anxieties that went along with America's involvement in wars from the Revolutionary War to the Mexican War.

Recounts the experiences of civilians whose lives were disrupted by the African military's involvement in wars from colonial times through the Rwandan genocide, describing the hardships and challenges civilians faced during war times.

Focusing on key battles from Trenton to Ia Drang, the author combines political analysis with gripping narratives of combat. Presents a history of how presidents weigh political pressures against military realities--and how their decisions play out for the men and women in the line of fire.

Blackwater was founded by former Navy SEAL Erik Prince in 1997, recruiting special forces veterans and others with the skills and courage to take on the riskiest security jobs in the world. Blackwater's men eventually completed nearly one hundred thousand missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite this success, Blackwater's men have been accused of being mercenaries, profiteers, jackbooted thugs and worse. Because of secrecy requirements of Blackwater's contracts with the Pentagon, the State Department and the CIA, Erick Prince has been unable to speak out when opponents spread false information. But now he's able to tell the company's true story.