The Tartan

The Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology (CMIST) held an event, “Civil-Military Relations: Throughout History and in Modern Times with Kori Schake,” last Thursday in the Grand Room of Posner Hall, to discuss the United States military in political discourse.

The event saw Dr. Audrey Kurth Cronin, Trustees Professor of Security and Technology and Director of the Carnegie Institute for Strategy & Technology, pose questions to Dr. Kori Schake, a senior fellow and the Director of the Foreign and Defense Policy team at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), to examine the history of American civil-military relations, its importance to the nation, and how to strengthen collaboration between the military and political leaders.

The event began with Schake explaining the Newburgh Conspiracy of 1783, an event in which Continental Army Officers challenged the Confederation Congress’s authority due to Congress’s inability to meet their financial obligations to the military. George Washington defused the conspiracy with a letter acknowledging their grievances. However, when trying to read them the letter, Washington struggled due to his failing vision and stated “Gentleman, you must pardon me, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in service to my country.” The soldiers were taken aback by Washington’s vulnerability and were emotionally moved.

“He never demands, he pleads. He never gets the resources he believes he needs to carry out his strategy, so he changes his strategy to something consistent with the resources the Continental Congress
can provide,” Schake said.

According to Schake, two important things Washington did after that event were disciplining the mutineers by making them sign their loyalty to the Congress of the Confederation, and acknowledging Congress’s shortcomings: “He openly acknowledges Congress is terrible at what they’re doing. … That doesn’t matter that the American military subordination is about who we are as a military, not who Congress is as a legislature, and that rings down through the ages.”

Schake also relayed the tension between President Andrew Johnson and the U.S. Congress in 1866 over the reconstruction of the Confederate states. President Johnson wanted a swift reconstruction that excluded African Americans while Congress desired a slow reconstruction that expanded basic rights for African Americans.

Both the President and Congress desired to know what side General Ulysses S. Grant, the General-in-Chief at the time, favored. However, Grant felt his duty was toward implementing federal policy rather than bipartisan politics. “I think it’s really important that when the President and the Congress were in the greatest era of friction, other than the secession crisis, that Grant chose to obey the law, not to obey the Commander in Chief,” Schake added.

When asked whether she believes we are in a civil-military crisis, Schake replied “I do not.” Schake went on to explain that the American military takes its oath to the Constitution, and is subordinate to the President and Congress. “The President can fire anybody he wants, and the military lets it happen because everybody in the senior ranks serves at the pleasure of the President.”

Schake argues there are two important tests of the civil-military relationship: Can the President fire anybody with impunity, and will the military carry out policies they don’t agree with?

Schake believes the American military passes the first test. Regarding the second test, although the military has had reservations about every major policy over the last 23 years, they “carried them out without a murmur.”

Every year, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute conducts the Reagan National Defense Survey, a public opinion poll meant to aid elected officials, policymakers, and stakeholders in understanding how Americans view defense, foreign policy, and national security matters. From this poll, Cronin noted that public trust in the American military dropped from 70 percent in 2018 to 45 percent in 2021, and currently stands at 51 percent, leading her to ask Schake why public trust in the institution has declined.

Schake researched the public view of the military while co-authoring the book “Warriors and Citizens: American Views of Our Military.” She believes what helped strengthen the public’s relationship with the military was the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which limits military use in law enforcement.

Schake also argued that the military provides a path into education, opportunity, and skill development, and “the public really values that about our military because there aren’t so many other obvious conveyor belts in the American middle class.”

However, Schake believes there are two reasons for public distrust in the military, the first being behavior demonstrated by military leadership that invites civilian censure, citing General Mark Milley’s defense of critical race theory as an example. Public distrust in the military is also the result of the behavior demonstrated by Republican politicians, according to Schake.

“The main reason, though, is the disgraceful behavior of my fellow Republicans, of going after the American military as somehow unpatriotic and somehow obsessed with diversity, rather than trying to do good work for the country … and that’s the biggest reason for the dip in public support.”

Cronin brought up comments made by the recently appointed Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. Hegseth has made it public that he wishes to review the standards for joning the military, because he believes standards have been
lowered in order to allow women to serve in the military.

Schake responded by saying that this “could be beneficial” because Hegseth would be confronted by data that she says shows that female service members do, in fact, benefit the military. Schake elaborated that “we need to make Republicans walk the plank on this, because they’re the ones who created the problem.”

Cronin proceeded to ask about the appropriateness of military use at the border and whether this approach was anything new, to which Schake responded “It’s not a new thing.”

“If you care about civil-military relations, you should also care about us getting legislation that actually takes pressure off of
the southern border, because it’s going to be bad for civil- military relations if we push on the major part of the solution to this problem, much less military helping round people in cities around the American country,” Schake added.

Cronin also inquired about the unevenness of military recruitment in the United States, which Schake attributed to most recruits coming from the southern and western United States. Since funding allocated to recruitment is low, it is focused on areas that produce the most recruits. “Part of the reason the American military is so proficient is because the people who are in it want to be there and have good reasons to want to be there.”

According to Cronin, the issue isn’t just that fewer people are being recruited, but that about 23 percent of those recruited are incapable of passing the intelligence test or physical exam. She mentioned efforts being made by the U.S. military toward solving this, such as the Future Soldiers Program, and asked Schake for her thoughts on the matter.

Schake said the pandemic negatively impacted the number of individuals being recruited, but that has improved since then. She also applauded the Marine Corps recruitment efforts, stating “40 percent of generals in the Marine Corps have done a recruiting tour … so 25 percent of army recruits come through this remedial program. 20 percent of the Navy’s recruits come through this remedial program.”

Toward the end of the event, Cronin referenced the tendency of Carnegie Mellon scientists and engineers to go into the private sector, start their startups, or pursue research projects, as opposed to joining the military.

“Don’t you think that the fact that the military is no longer driving technological innovation and is seen as not being at the cutting edge is having an influence on civil-military relations and the eagerness of some of our brightest young people to join the military?” Cronin asked.

“Bright young people advancing technology at Carnegie Mellon is also good for the country, and so I mean finding ways that the military is knowledgeable about what’s going on in the civilian economy, and there are pathways for pulling technologies into the military,” Schake replied.

Schake is set to publish a book on civil-military relations this upcoming September.