ABSTRACT
In this artide I seek to demoostrate the importance of organizational logic in military decision-making by examining seven cases of decisions for war made by Pakistan between 1947 and 1971. I argue that while civilians ehoase war for a variety of symbolic political reasons, the restraining influence of military ad visors tends either to limit the scale of the operation or to lead to its cancellation. However, when the military becomes the govemment, their specialized methods of decision-making tend to systematically discount the advice of other branches of govemment. While a
civilian decision for war may be motivated by an ignorance of the means available, this can at least be corrected by rnilitary consultation. However, when a rnilitary decision is not inforrned by prevailing international conditions, its resulting war-proneness is due to an absence of any institutional counterbalance.
