Epilogue: Coordinating actors in complex operations and a third way to study two familiar dualities

Abstract

The field has traditionally studied civil-military relations in one of two domains: supreme command, where the great questions of war and peace were decided by the top leaders, or society, where the military institutions sought to establish themselves in relations to the broader civilian world. This special edition emphasizes a third domain: the modern battlefield of complex operations. In that setting the lines between civilian and military are even more blurred than in traditional settings (where they were already quite blurred), and concerns about effectiveness cannot be ignored for the sake of the traditional focus on control.

Keywords:

• civil-military relations
• civilian control
• military operations
• irregular warfare