Book Examines U.S. Civil-Military Relations Under Current Administration

Kori Schake’s book The State and the Soldier: A History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States was published in October 2025. It examines whether the U.S. military chain of command remains intact when civilian leaders issue orders that officers may personally oppose.

Schake identifies two tests for civilian control: whether a president can remove senior officers and whether officers will execute lawful orders they disagree with. The book states that both tests have been met in recent cases. Trump dismissed the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the chief of naval operations, and the vice chief of staff of the Air Force.

The military carried out the orders. It also deployed to U.S. cities when directed and conducted boat strikes in the Caribbean following a classified Justice Department memo.

Schake previously served as a director on George W. Bush’s National Security Council and as a senior policy advisor on the McCain-Palin campaign. She was fired from the Defense Policy Board in April 2025. The book argues that the military will obey legal orders and that any crisis lies in the political sphere rather than within the armed forces.

It cites earlier works by Eliot Cohen and Peter D. Feaver to support the view that officers should advise but not substitute their judgment for civilian decisions.