New Issue of Current History Tackles Civil-Military Relations

What happens when political leaders pull the military into domestic politics?

The new September issue of Current History takes up that increasingly urgent question, examining the changing relationship between militaries and civilian governments in the United States and democracies around the world.

The issue is the second published under a new partnership between the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) and University of California Press, following July’s inaugural issue, “Where Do We Go From Here?” The partnership brings scholars and other leading thinkers together to make sense of the history-making shifts transforming the world.

The September issue features UC scholars Stephan Haggard, David Lake, and Robert Thomas of UC San Diego and Saira Mohamed of UC Berkeley, alongside contributors from across the United States and beyond.

“There is a weight to this issue that is hard to ignore,” editor Lindsay Shingler writes in her introduction. The collection, assembled by contributing editor Rebecca Best, confronts the dangers that arise when political leaders draw militaries into undemocratic politics. The essays, Shingler writes, “will inform and disquiet you.”

Founded in the months after the outbreak of World War I, Current History began as a supplement to The New York Times and went on to chronicle more than a century of history as it unfolded, through the voices of scholars, novelists, social critics, and world leaders. IGCC’s partnership with UC Press seeks to carry that tradition forward, bringing authoritative and fresh perspectives to the defining issues of our era.

View the issue and Subscribe here.