The soldier and the liberal state

This chapter engages in a critical analysis of Samuel Huntington’s theory of civil-military relations. Huntington’s theory postulates antithetical relationship between functional requirements on the military and societal ideology. This chapter, on the contrary, demonstrates that, first, international structure in which liberal states play a powerful role renders a reconciliation between societal and functional (structural) requirements possible. Moreover, this chapter discusses normative prescriptions that has stemmed from liberal political thinking since the era of Enlightenment. Importantly, these prescriptions constitute a coherent system in which specific liberal missions are matched with a corresponding institutional design of armed forces.