Soldiersand Civilians: The Civil-Military Gap and AmericanNational Security

If you intend to own only a single volume on the crucial question of civil-military relations in the United States, choose this book. It is a comprehensive (indeed, exhaustive) review of the literature and commentary surrounding this timely debate. (A synthesis appears as the lead article in this issue.) It addresses what former secretary of defense William Cohen described as a “chasm” in American society. The editors have assembled a wide variety of commentators who examine two fundamental questions: Are the American armed forces and the civilian sector drifting apart as the result of a lack of shared values and neartotal ignorance by the civilians of the military role? If so, what are the potential consequences for U.S. society