Ideational Factors in Civil-Military Relations

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel examines hypotheses about how ideational factors such as culture, norms, values, and ideologies can impact civil-military relations. Ideas held by and about the military play an important role both in safeguarding democracy and in maintaining security against external threats. When these ideas begin to break down or are challenged, it is important to reaffirm or adjust appropriate and effective practices to improve civil-military relations. These papers use diverse methods to contribute and test new theories about the relationship between ideas, the military, and domestic and international threats, both in the United States and cross-nationally. Brooks, Urben, and Robinson examine the strength of democratic civil-military norms in the United States using an original survey and list experiment of cadet attitudes at the United States Military Academy. Similarly, Kleykamp, Wenig, Cohn, and Croco use a survey experiment to interrogate the partisan, demographic, and ideological sources of individuals’ trust in the American military. Margulies and Kinney compare unstable or transitioning regimes to demonstrate how leadership ideology mediates the relationship between threat perception and the design of security institutions. Finally, Lotito uses quantitative evidence and a process-trace of Tunisian military training to explain when and how security force assistance can shape organizational culture and norms. Together, these four papers draw on American, comparative, and international relations theories of civil-military relations, demonstrating the value that can be gained from cross-subfield dialogue and advancing our understanding of how ideas about the military impact international security and domestic stability.

Sub Unit

• Division 19: International Security

Chair

• Sarah E. Parkinson Johns Hopkins University

Discussant

• Danielle Lupton Colgate University

Individual Presentations

• Military Socialization and the State of Civil-Military Norms - Risa A. Brooks, Marquette University; Heidi Urben, Georgetown University; Michael Robinson, United States Military Academy

• Thank You for Whose Service? Diversity and Gratitude Towards Military Personnel - Meredith Kleykamp, University of Maryland; Lindsay P. Cohn, Naval War College; Sarah E. Croco, University of Maryland, College Park

• Civil-Military Ideologies: How Leaders' Beliefs Affect Security Structure Design - Max Zeldes Margulies, United States Military Academy; Drew Holland Kinney, Tulane University

• Reconsidering the Political Effects of Foreign Military Training - Nicholas John Lotito, Yale University