Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime

Using four historical case studies drawn from the 19th and 20th centuries, Cohen analyses the relationship between the highest levels of military command and political leadership at the civil-military interface. This is set against a discussion of the ‘normal’ theory of civil-military relations advanced in Samuel Huntington’s famous The Soldier and the State, which Cohen substantially revises. 

This book should be read conscious of the US political system it rests within, which has fundamental differences to Australia’s Westminster system.