A very interesting article published by Chatham House – link below – which examines the impact of a military heavy National Security Council (NSC) on conducting foreign policy, though some have called it a form of discrimination against the military. However, this approach coupled with the weakening of civilian institutions like the U.S. State Department raises serious concerns about implications on policy development/implementation particularly as it relates to foreign policy. Military minds operate within a predominantly military context which are more tuned towards military rather diplomatic considerations. I am one of those who firmly believe in the clear separation between the civil & military domains as advocated by this article otherwise we’re liable to corrupt the system with another weak point susceptible to political corruption/influence – so rather than help cleanse our political echo system from corruption by riding it from lobbyists/special interest groups we’re actually exacerbating the problem. More importantly I am a strong believer of specialisation through a government run by technocrats/career professionals experienced in their domain of work – not at all like what we see in current formations of government where political cowboys/girls are the order of the day- but I suggest we move in that direction.
To sum up a very interesting article – definitely worth a read – where I totally concur with the author about the dangers of politicising the military.
PS. What is fascinating about what’s going on in the current US administration and the overall political climate in the United States is that it truly provides a very useful (active) resource on how NOT to govern, at least where Democratic/Liberal governance is concerned; so I can only hope that experts/politicians out there both in Europe and across the atlantic are keen to analyse/take notes (daily notes) so that we avoid following this same footpath & pitfalls when planning for the future – an opportunity NOT to be missed. There is serious work to be done to fix our system and plenty of lessons to learn so that our Democratic/Liberal values can freely/soundly evolve in a healthy political echo system as they are meant to be.