Decoding Morris Janowitz: Limited War and Pragmatic Doctrine

Warmaking and war preparation have changed significantly in the 21st century. A number of scholars have documented and analyzed these changes. Drawing on work focused upon “new war” and “new militarism,” we argue that one facet of these practices has received little attention—the environmental consequences of “new militarism.” Specifically, we contend that “asymmetric war” through the mechanism of risk-transfer militarism results in increased carbon emissions. Our analyses utilize fixed effects models for 126 countries using international panel data from 2000 to 2010. We sketch the differences in these outcomes for both developed and developing nations, contextualize carbon emissions within both times of economic prosperity and decline, provide evidence of the differential effects on carbon emissions by a nation’s world-systems standing, and provide empirical evidence of the rise of risk-transfer militarism and its negative effects on the environment.

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confidence: 99%

The Environmental Consequences of Asymmetric War: A Panel Study of Militarism and Carbon Emissions, 2000–2010

Smith

Lengefeld

2019

“… 16. Note that our two-by-two model allows for four ideal types (effective, self-possessed, ideologic, and utopian) of military political behavior. This superficially resembles the two categories of professional outlook (absolutist and pragmatist) that interested Janowitz (and more recently Travis, 2018). Accordingly, any given officer may be characterized by Janowitz as absolutist in general military outlook and yet in a particular moment (our focus) may display both high levels of practical wisdom and of virtú, making that officer “effective” in military politics and civil–military relations. …”

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confidence: 65%

“… 3. Signs of resurging interest in Janowitz include the reissue of The Professional Soldier , several recent conference panels dedicated to Janowitz’s life and work, and the Army Research Institute’s funding of Crosbie’s ongoing replication of The Professional Soldier . See also Travis (2017, 2018) and Crosbie and Kleykamp (2017, 2018). …”

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confidence: 98%

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The Virtues of Military Politics

Coletta

Crosbie

2019

Sociologists and political scientists have long fretted over the dangers that a politicized military poses to democracy. In recent times, however, civil–military relations experts in the United States accepted retired or indeed still serving generals and admirals in high-ranking political posts. Despite customary revulsion from scholars, the sudden waivers are an indicator that military participation in momentous national security decisions is inherently political without necessarily being partisan, including when civilian authority defers to a largely autonomous sphere for objective military expertise. Military politics is actually critical for healthy civil–military collaboration, when done prudently and moderately. Janowitz and Huntington, founders of the modern study of civil–military relations, understood the U.S. military’s inevitable invitation to political influence. Here, we elaborate on two neglected dimensions, implicit in their projects, of military politics under objective civilian control based on classical virtues of civic republicanism: Aristotle’s practical wisdom and Machiavelli’s virtú.

“…All this, the indictment for a mortal civil–military relations sin and subsequent contrition, aligned with purportedly obsolete prescriptions of Huntington that officers remain apart, steadfastly apolitical. On the other hand, it was orthogonal to Janowitz’s newly celebrated call for political indoctrination of the officer corps designed to lead rising professionals during the irregular warfare of the 1960s away from military science and single-minded pursuit of absolute victory, toward a heterodox constabulary force fit for maintaining stability in a complicated world (Travis, 2020).…”

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confidence: 99%

Janowitz and Huntington—Better Together: A Response

Coletta

Crosbie

2021

Suzanne Nielsen and Hugh Liebert recently published “The Continuing Relevance of Morris Janowitz’s The Professional Soldier for the Education of Officers” in which they argued that officer education is too enamored with Samuel Huntington’s aging theory of civil–military relations from Soldier and the State. Huntington’s ideal of objective control grants senior military advisors autonomy within their professional sphere, and it best ensures that unvarnished military expertise survives politically charged national security decision making processes intact, regardless of which party controls the White House. While these features explain Huntington’s traditional popularity with the military, Nielsen and Liebert warn that Huntington’s separation between military and civilian matters in theory engenders wishful thinking in practice, so much so that officers neglect, to the detriment of national policy, Morris Janowitz, Huntington’s cofounder of the modern study of civil–military relations. However, the civil–military community should reconsider banishing Huntington in order to appreciate Janowitz.