War Termination As A Civil-military Bargain: Soldiers, Statesmen, And The Politics Of Protracted Armed Conflict
by Shawn T. Cochran /
2015 / English / PDF
7.9 MB Download
Once embroiled in costly, protracted war, some political leaders dig in their heels despite mounting casualties and growing domestic discontent while others prove more apt to cut the state's losses and bring the war to a timely end. Addressing such variation in behavior, this book examines the problem of war termination through a civil-military lens. It argues that the interplay between political and military leadership affects the extent to which a political leader risks being blamed and punished for a failed war and this risk, in turn, influences a political leader's war termination calculus. While it may be true that nobody wants to lose a war, it is surely the case that nobody wants to be blamed for losing a war. Drawing upon evidence from the Hundred Years' War to recent US operations in Afghanistan, this book shows how the termination of protracted war ultimately represents a civil-military bargain and also suggests that this bargain is rarely an easy one.
