Advocates of cultivating a resignation-in-protest ethic understate the costs and exaggerate the benefits. Military officers who believe that the policymaking process is heading in a bad direction already have ample recourse in the form of advising within the chain of command. If their advice is not heeded, it is exceedingly unlikely that the country would be better served by senior officers provoking a civil–military crisis to advertise their policy differences with civilian leaders.
BiddleS.FriedmanJ.ShapiroJ. (2012). Testing the surge: Why did violence decline in Iraq in 2007?International Security, 37, 7–40.
3.
BurkJ. (2009). Responsible obedience by military professionals: The discretion to do what is wrong. In NielsenS. C.SniderD. M. (Eds.), American civil-military relations: The soldier and the state in a new era (pp. 149–171). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
4.
BushG. W. (2011). Decision points. New York, NY: Crown.
5.
CooperH.SangerD. (2010, 623). Obama fires McChrystal, citing need for unity in Afghan war (A1). New York Times.
DubikJ. M. (2017). Taking a “pro” position on principled resignation. Armed Forces & Society, 43, 17–28.
9.
FeaverP. D. (2003). Armed servants: Agency, oversight and civil-military relations. Cambridge, England: Harvard University Press.
10.
FeaverP. D. (2011). The right to be right: Civil-military relations and the Iraq surge decision. International Security, 35, 87–125.
11.
FeaverP. D. (2011/2012). Correspondence: Civilians, soldiers and the Iraq surge decision. International Security, 36, 179–199. (Originally published on 2011)
GolbyJ. (2015). Beyond the resignation debate: A new framework for civil-military dialogue. Strategic Studies Quarterly, 9, 18–46.
20.
HuntingtonS. P. (1957). The soldier and the state: The theory and politics of civil-military relations. Cambridge, England: Belknap Press of Harvard University.
21.
KohnR. (Ed.). (2001, Spring). The early retirement of General Ronald R. Fogleman, Chief of Staff, United States Air Force. Aerospace Power Journal, 15, 6–23
22.
KohnR. (2017). On resignation. Armed Forces & Society, 43, 41–52.
23.
MargolickD. (2007, 331). The night of the generals. Vanity Fair, 246.
24.
MilburnA. (2010). Breaking ranks: Dissent and the military professional. Joint Forces Quarterly, 59, 101–107.
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
