Choosing Your Battles: American Civil-Military Relations and the Use of Force.(Book review)

Publication: Air & Space Power Journal

Publication Date: 22-DEC-05

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COPYRIGHT 2005 U.S. Air Force

Choosing Your Battles: American Civil-Military Relations and the Use of Force by Peter D. Feaver and Christopher Gelpi. Princeton University Press (http://www.pupress.princeton.edu), 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 085405237, 2004, 236 pages, $37.50 (hardcover).

Whenever American leaders decide to use military force, there is usually a great debate within elite leadership circles over how to use that force. One school of thought prefers liberal engagement of the military through a wide range of civil/military operations and with varying degrees of restrictions on the use of that force. Another school reserves the use of force for truly realpolitik uses, then engaging with overwhelming force (the Powell Doctrine). This gap concerning the use of force has affected and will continue to affect military effectiveness and civil-military cooperation.

Woven throughout this debate is a perception in both schools that the American public will not tolerate American casualties resulting from any American military operation. Our political and military leadership as well as our potential foes views this "casualty phobia" as an Achilles' heel.

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