Secretary Problem

Dauren Koptleuov

Recent Donald Trump’s signing of the executive order designed to restrict access of seven Middle East countries to the United States sparkled a massive debate around it. According to The Guardian (Siddiqui, 2017) this executive order applies to the refugees and immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia. Besides common public concern about the future of refugees and discrimination of Muslim states, there are also considerations amongst the military men. As NY Times (Cooper, 2017) states, Pentagon is not quite comfortable with Trump’s decision. For example, military officials consider Iraq an ally after overturn of Hussein’s regime; and a considerable amount of efforts and money are spent on military campaigns fighting terrorism and autocracy.

Quite an interesting role in this situation is devoted to the newly appointed Secretary of Defence, James Mattis. On the one hand, his appointment is one of uncommon decisions of Mr. Trump. On the other hand, according to NY Times (2017), Mattis is quite concerned about the current situation:

“This kind of thing is causing us great damage right now, and it’s sending shock waves through the international system”.

This, however, is not an end to dilemma that stands before the Secretary: Politico (Wright et al., 2017) states that democrats as well as some republicans from the Senate decided to grant permission to Mattis to hold position of Secretary with hope that he would be “reining in a president-elect who has unorthodox views on matters of war and peace”. Mad Dog seems to be caught in the middle: officials as well as rallying civilians appear to be highly dissatisfied because of immigration ban, while Mr. President certainly relies on support of his colleagues, especially those who were personally chosen by him. This situation is intensified by the fact that Trump fires US general attorney in several hours after she was reluctant to approve his executive order about immigration ban (Smith et al., 2017).

Eventually, let us shift to the brief discussion of how the case appointment of Mr. Mattis can be significant in the context of the civil-military relations. Generally, it challenges fundamental theory of Samuel Huntington (1957), general principle of which is: military stays out of politics. In other words, in order to preserve objective civilian control, Secretary of Defense should not be military person, because it potentially may cause a conflict between civilians and military, so the latter should completely obey. What is more interesting is that both the President and the Senate, technically speaking, made a decision to appoint Mattis with different purposes and both rely on Secretary’s support. Such setting may cause tensions not only between military and civilian sector, but also within the government itself. Therefore, it can be said that James Mattis becomes one of the key figures of the United States straightforwardly after appointment. Internal security of the state (possibility of armed protests, insurgencies, and coups) as well as civil-military relations seem to depend considerably on the rightfulness of his choice whether to oppose, agree or give a “frank advice” to Mr. Trump’s in the light of recent events.

References:

Cooper, H. (2017). Trump’s Signing of Immigrant Ban Puts Pentagon in Uncomfortable Light. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 28 January 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/28/us/politics/trump-immigration-ban-muslims-military.html?_r=0

Huntington, S. (1957). The soldier and the state (1st ed.). Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Siddiqui, S. (2017). Trump signs 'extreme vetting' executive order for people entering the US. the Guardian. Retrieved 28 January 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/27/donald-trump-muslim-refugee-ban-executive-action

Smith, D., Ackerman, S., & Jacobs, B. (2017). Sally Yates fired by Trump after acting US attorney general defied travel ban. the Guardian. Retrieved 30 January 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/30/justice-department-trump-immigration-acting-attorney-general-sally-yates

Wright, A., Herb, J., Bender, B., Schor, E., & Griffiths, B. (2017). Democrats’ role for Mattis: The anti-Trump. POLITICO. Retrieved 25 January 2017, from http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/james-mattis-confirmation-hearing-takeaways-233550