Since World War II, the United States has been engaged in near-constant military conflict abroad, often with ill-defined objectives, ineffectual strategy, and uncertain benefits. In this era of limited congressional oversight and wars of choice, the executive and the armed services have shared the primary responsibility for making war. The negotiations between presidents and their generals thus grow ever more significant, and understanding them becomes essential.

Matthew Moten traces a sweeping history of the evolving roles of civilian and military leaders in conducting war, demonstrating how war strategy and national security policy shifted as political and military institutions developed, and how they were shaped by leaders personalities. Early presidents established the principle of military subordination to civil government, and from the Civil War to World War II the president s role as commander-in-chief solidified, with an increasingly professionalized military offering its counsel. But General Douglas MacArthur s insubordination to President Harry Truman during the Korean War put political-military tensions on public view. Subsequent presidents selected generals who would ally themselves with administration priorities. Military commanders in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan did just that and the results were poorly conceived policy and badly executed strategy.

The most effective historical collaborations between presidents and their generals were built on mutual respect for military expertise and civilian authority, and a willingness to negotiate with candor and competence. Upon these foundations, future soldiers and statesmen can ensure effective decision-making in the event of war and bring us closer to the possibility of peace."

Colonel Matthew Moten of the West Point History Department has asked why so many other professions have clear statements of professional responsibility, but the Army officer corps does not. This essay briefly surveys the history of the Army's professional ethic, focusing primarily on the officer corps. It assesses today's strategic, professional, and ethical environment. Then it argues that a clear statement of the Army officers' professional ethic is especially necessary in a time when the Army is stretched and stressed as an institution. The Army officer corps has both a need and an opportunity to better define itself as a profession, forthrightly to articulate its professional ethic, and clearly to codify what it means to be a military professional. Finally, the monograph articulates such an ethic focusing on the four roles of commissioned officers-Soldier, servant of the nation, leader of character, and member of a time-honored profession.

Now in paperback, "Between War and Peace" is "a set of essays devoted to the shadowy ground on which the guns have ceased their roar, but could resume at any moment" ( "Kirkus Reviews" ).
As the United States attempts to extricate itself from two long and costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, nothing could be more vital than a thorough examination of the way America has ended its major conflicts in the past.
As it fills an important gap in military history, "Between War and Peace" is bound to be a pillar of military academy and college curricula. The book presents fifteen essays by leading American historians, each of which deals in fascinating detail with the aims of these wars, their predominant strategies, their final campaigns, the course and causes of termination, and their ramifications for the nation's future. Taken together, they will be a groundbreaking addition to the canon of military history.
A formidable, collaborative effort that illuminates the past in ways that will help us understand our troubled present, "Between War and Peace" takes readers inside some of American history's most important turning points.

This conference investigates war termination, one of the most important issues facing military and political leaders as they use or contemplate the use of use of military force in the pursuit of national aims. Prompted by the Unified Quest Training and Leader Development theme and discussions about the use of history in training and leader development, the US Army Training and Doctrine Command and the United States Military Academy partnered on this war termination project and invited renowned military historians to provide their views on the subject. The study began with several seminars following Unified Quest in May of 2009. Each contributor provided a brief essay and presented their views on the topic at a War Termination Conference at West Point in June of 2010. These scholarsrepresented a broad range of the American experience from the Revolutionary War to the first Gulf War. The assembled essays and interviews reflect the thoughts of these historians about America's wars, their concluding battles or final campaigns, and ultimately how they ended. While they provide no answers and no formula for successful war termination, they do provide thoughtful reflections from years of study and they suggest important implications for civilian and military decisionmakers today.