ABSTRACT
At first sight, one might be tempted to assume that the question of military obedience toward political authority simply is a non-issue. Military professionals no doubt have opinions of their own about political decisions in the realm of security and defense, but in the end, they just have to obey and carry out the political orders to the best of their abilities. The idea of the subordination of military authority to the political powers is not a recent one. Plato already defended it in his “Republic.” According to Huntington, this division of labor between the political and the military realms became firmly entrenched in the nineteenth century as a result of the professionalization of the military occupation. The first responsibility Huntington distinguishes is representation. The military officer has the responsibility to represent the important aspect of military security in the political decision-making process.
