Military Review English Edition July-August 2015 | Page 126

To explain his theory, Moten created a series
of short narratives exploring the relationship of
the various presidents with their wartime military
leaders. While primarily distilling secondary sources, he has composed a series of well-written narratives addressing wartime political-military relations,
starting with the founding fathers and ending with
the recent conflicts associated with President Bush
and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. According to
Moten, trust between the parties is the cement that
holds the political-military relationship together.
When that trust was absent, as in the case of Lincoln
and McClellan, the relationship deteriorated and,
consequently, detrimentally affected the execution of the war. When it existed, as in the cases of
Lincoln and Grant, or Roosevelt and his chiefs of
staff, the relationship flourished and military policy
was conducted effectively.
The conclusions that Moten draws, however,
are more varied than merely the general concept of
trust. He makes the case that there is no impermeable barrier between the political decisions made
by the civilian leadership and th e military decisions
made by the commanders. Instead, soldiers “stray
into the realm of policy making, while civilians
leaders involve themselves in professional military
matters.” In taking this position, Moten squarely
rejects Samuel Huntington’s concept of objective
civilian control in which policy is entirely the prerogative of the civilian leadership and the military’s
professional duty is to mutely execute orders and
effectuate the civilian leader’s policy. Implicitly, he
argues that the professional military must be part
of the public dialogue on military matters, though
not necessarily that their ideas should prevail.
In this regard, it is unfortunate that the author
did not include the 2006 “Revolt of the Generals”
against Secretary Rumsfeld in his narrative. While
the “Revolt” did not fit squarely into his analysis of
negotiations between the civilian and wartime military leaders, the underlying issues were trust—and
to what extent the military should participate in
public debate without appearing partisan. Both are
central to his conclusions. In the final analysis, the
author raised a number of profound issues regarding the relationship between the nation’s civilian
leaders and its military commanders and, as such,
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should be required reading for America’s professional officer corps.
John C. Binkley, Ph.D., Annapolis, Maryland

DRONE WARS: Transforming Conflict, Law,
and Policy
Edited by Peter L. Bergen and Daniel Rothenberg,
Cambridge University Press, New York, 2014,
512 pages

T

he book Drone Wars is an extensive anthology on the current debates surrounding the
use of armed aerial drones in contemporary
conflicts. The editors compiled a list of twenty-two
essays and divided them into four major topic areas:
drones on the ground, drones and the law of war,
drones and policy, and drones and the future of war.
Each topic area provides an in-depth view of the political, ethical, legal, and moral arguments surrounding the employment of armed drones. Contributing
authors provide a wide array of opinions and observations detailing both the pros and cons of drone warfare. Many of the authors are subject matter experts
in the fields of international law, policy, and strategy
development. Others come from academia, media,
government, and various think tanks from around the
country. This impressive list helps to make the book
an authoritative source on drone warfare.
Anthologies are dependent on the quality of their
contributing authors, and Drone Wars does not lack
quality authors. One of the leading experts on the
evolution of robotics and drone warfare, Peter W.
Singer, who is best known for his book, Wired for
War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st
Century, contributed a compelling essay on what he
calls the “five deadly flaws” of thinking concerning
emerging drone technology. Singer’s essay describes
the emergence of robotic military technologies and
how they are fundamentally transforming law, ethics,
and our general view of war. A leading defense expert,
Rosa Brooks, offers a balanced yet provocative essay,
“Drones and Cognitive Dissonance,” on the back and
forth arguments among military and policy experts
on the employment of armed drones. However, a few
essays try to inundate the reader with statistics and
July-August 2015  MILITARY REVIEW