Gene M. Lyons

The New Civil-Military Relations

Historically the character of civil-military relations in the United States has been dominated by the concept of civilian control of the military. This has largely been a response to the fear of praetorianism. As recently as 1949, for example, the first Hoover Commission asserted that one of the major reasons for strengthening the “means of exercising civilian control” over the defense establishment was to “safeguard our democratic traditions against militarism.” This same warning was raised in the report of the Rockefeller Committee on defense organization in 1953. While the overriding purpose of the committees recommendations was to provide “the Nation with maximum security at minimum cost,” the report made it clear that this had to be achieved “without danger to our free institutions, based on the fundamental principle of civilian control of the Military Establishment.” Finally, during the debate on the reorganization proposals of 1958, senators and congressmen used the theme of a “Prussianized” military staff to attempt to slow down the trend towards centralization in the military establishment. Despite this imposing support, the concept of civilian control of the military has little significance for contemporary problems of national security in the United States. In the first place, military leaders are divided among themselves, although their differences cannot be reduced to a crass contrast between dichomatic doctrines. Air Force leaders who are gravely concerned over the need to maintain a decisive nuclear retaliatory force are by now acknowledging the need to develop a limited war capability.

Globalizing the Social Sciences

For two years, 1971 and 1972, I was on leave from Dartmouth College to serve as Director of the Department of Social Sciences of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). What I am about to say, therefore, comes from that experience, as well as a continuing concern over a longer number of years with the problems of international cooperation among social scientists. My principal aim is to explain how the UNESCO social science program seeks to respond to these problems in the period of social science development through which we are passing.

The long road from deterrence to disarmament: a review: J. David Singer, Deterrence, Arms Control, and Disarmament

It was in a commencement address at the University of Michigan in June 1962, that Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announced his now controversial &dquo;no-cities&dquo; strategy. The intent was clear: to suggest to the Soviet Union that if the unwanted thermonuclear war should break out, the two major powers should restrict their targets to the enemy’s military forces. Civilian populations would be spared. The purposes of the &dquo;no-cities&dquo; strategy would seem to be two: to make thermonuclear war more difficult, and also more tolerable. The &dquo;no-cities&dquo; doctrine was de-