THREAD: The news of the pending appointment of retired Gen. Lloyd Austin as SecDef has provoked a complex reaction. Here is a thread of @monkeycageblog posts summarizing relevant security studies and civil-military research (hello spring syllabi!). 1/
To start with, the appointment would be a historic first, if not the one many were expecting. The military is in the midst of a reckoning on race; here, @jaylyall_red5 writes about why diversity in the military is important to its mission. 2/ washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…
But another retired general requiring a waiver to serve in civilian role has drawn criticism from civil-military scholars, esp after erosion of civilian control of the military in the Trump years. See Dec '16 @PeteWhitePolSci piece on Trump and generals 3/ washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-ca…
Here is the great @RisaBrooks12 with a primer on civilian control of the military.... 4/ washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-ca…
...and @RisaBrooks12 on some of the early decisions of Trump's tenure that broke civil-military rules. 5/ washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-ca…
Trump has politicized the military in many other ways, as @CarrieALee1 summarized in this piece from July 2020. 6/ washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…
See also @DoyleKHodges on Trump's interference in the Eddie Gallagher case and its implications for civilian control of the military. 5/ washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/…
There's also the issue of military endorsements, a trend that started long before Trump but @jimgolby has written about how Trump and others try to use the military for partisan political benefit. 6/ washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…
There was also civil-military damage from the 2018 deployment of troops along the southern border, as @ahfdc wrote here: 8/ washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-ca…
And @dburbach @lindsaypcohn & @ProfLupton wrote about how the response to the Portland protests this summer undermined civilian control of the military. 9/ washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…
Of course there are exceptions: @ahfdc wrote that Trump's assertion of control over the Syria pullout actually reinforced the norm of civilian control--the president has the "right to be wrong," as Peter Feaver has written. 10/ washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-ca…
And circling back to the Mattis precedent, @m_robinson771 wrote about how Mattis' tenure and resignation further politicized the military and especially the role of retired military officers. 11/ washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-ca…
Many more issues and too many civil-military pieces to list here (hoping a @monkeycageblog topic guide on this soon!). But these & other scholars have written lots more, all grounded in research. One takeaway: Trump did damage & SecDef appt must be seen in that light. 13/
Of course, none of this touches substance of Austin's views or alternative candidates, e.g. on confronting China or great power competition. Or what a woman would mean in this role. Or views of D's as weak on natsec. But those are for another thread. 14/14
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