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So yesterday, my timeline had two major stories: The military coup in Mali and the ongoing debate among U.S. civ-mil-watchers about whether and how the American military might be asked/should prepare for contingencies where THEY will get involved in our transition of power 1/n
Americans don't usually think other countries have much to teach us. As the odd duck who works on both U.S. African security policy and U.S. defense issues, I am familiar with this blind spot. 2/n https://thehill.com/opinion/international/360778-a-lesson-for-america-from-zimbabwes-military-coup
I happen think the people arguing that we need to talk about, and think through, and prepare the U.S. military for its potential role in our upcoming presidential are sincerely worried about system of government. Which is fair; it's been under huge amounts of stress. But... 3/n
I also think those people are seeing a binary choice between saving the republic and saving the precious civil-military relations norm of keeping the military out of domestic politics. But I think those two things aren't separable. 4/n
If you want to save the republic, you can't invite the military to become an arbiter of domestic partisan politics. THIS republic in particular was designed with the assumption that the military would not serve that role. 5/n
What you see in Mali is a military that thinks it serves as the corrective to politics that are failing the society. That a corrective is needed is absolutely true. For the corrective to be the military is counterproductive. 6/n
Making the military enforce the system rather than just defend it makes domestic politics violently coercive rather than persuasive. As we have been seeing, we already run that risk with law enforcement and must constantly renegotiate the coercive powers of those forces. 7/n
We are pretty arrogant about how we could never become Mali or Zimbabwe. We're too special. But the more we look to the military to perform inherently civilian political functions, the less like ourselves we will be. 8/8
