Warmaking and American democracy

by Michael Pearlman

Warmaking and American Democracy is the first comprehensive study of American war strategy in its domestic context. It shows how internal divisions - between political parties, presidents and Congress, elected representatives and bureaucrats, soldiers and civilians, and branches of the armed services - make the creation of strategy extraordinarily complex and explains why wartime goals, ways, and means were often disconnected. Warmaking and American Democracy goes far beyond other accounts of U.S. military history by relating strategies and campaigns to policy goals and means. It invites serious reconsideration of how we wage war as it shows the complex nature of national security decision making in a democracy.