The tradition of U.S. military subordination to civilian authority - a norm so deeply embedded it can seem inevitable - was in fact neither likely nor certain, and today faces its most serious challenge in generations. That is the argument Kori Schake, a defense scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, has outlined in The Atlantic, as "Hvylya" reports.

America's founders were consumed by fear of a standing army threatening civilian governance. Complaints about the potential danger of military forces are prominent in the Declaration of Independence. Thirteen of the 85 Federalist Papers address the issue directly. The Constitution would not have been ratified without the Second and Third Amendments' protections against the federal government's use of military force.

George Washington's example proved decisive. As commander of the Continental Army, he "didn't make demands of Congress; he pleaded and entreated, consistently reinforcing the war powers of the civilian authorities," Schake wrote. When Alexander Hamilton urged the army to intimidate Congress, Washington cautioned that an army "is a dangerous instrument to play with." His public surrender of his commission at war's end helped cement norms that became the professional ethos of the U.S. military.

In the 20th century, even as the military grew enormously, fewer leaders challenged civilian authority than had in the prior century. In the 1930s, the Marine Corps wrote a doctrine explicitly subordinating its forces to the direction of diplomats. There were no significant civil-military disputes during World War II.

Yet today, Schake argued, "far more than their predecessors, Hegseth and President Trump have traduced the once-firm line between politics and the military." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reshaped military education, cut ties with elite universities, and created a climate in which officers may fear defending their own institutions. The Founders, Schake wrote, "would be astonished to see how massive the country's defense establishment has become today, and even more surprised by its tradition of deference to civilian authority." The question now is how long that tradition holds.

Previously: Harvard's Longest-Serving Professor Revealed Why Trump Is "More Democratic Than the Rest of Us".