ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the hierarchical position of a middle-level officer in time of war, a field commander responsible for making tactical decisions. He has a twofold responsibility that can be described in simple directional terms. He is responsible upward—to his military commanders and then through the highest of them, the commander-in-chief, to the sovereign people, whose “officer” he properly is and to whose collective safety and protection he is pledged. But there are other people likely to suffer for his failures and, often enough, for his successes too—namely, the soldiers that he commands. And so he is also responsible downward—to each and every one of them. Professor Michael Walzer received his B.A. at Brandeis in 1956 and the Ph.D. from Harvard in 1961. After teaching political theory at Princeton for four years, he joined the Department of Government at Harvard, remaining there until 1980.
