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The Real Problem With The Civilian-Military Gap
ResumeThe civilian-military gap is real and our guest says it affects the relationship between the White House and the Pentagon and can lead to bad policies and incoherent strategies. The gap affects decision-making in Washington because some senior civilians in the White House don't understand the structure of the military. While at the Pentagon, some senior military officers forget there's any other way to run an organization.
Robert Gates, when he was Secretary of Defense, warned of the growing disconnect between the military and the rest of the country's population. Gates told students at Duke University that serving in the military is, increasingly, something "other people to do."
Rosa Brooks is a law professor at Georgetown University and a former senior adviser at the U.S. State Department. Brooks writes in Foreign Policy Magazine that working together should have inspired familiarity, not contempt. But during her time at the Pentagon and the State Department, "I watched numerous interagency discussion devolve into exercises in mutual misunderstanding and frustration."
- Foreign Policy: Generals Are from Mars, Their Bosses Are from Venus
Guest:
- Rosa Brooks, law professor at Georgetown University
This segment aired on August 9, 2012.