後冷戰時期美國文武關係的演變

U.S. Civil-Military Relations in the Post-Cold War Period

本文的主要目的，在於探討以下幾個問題：後冷戰時期的美國文武關係是否處於「危機」狀態之中？或者只是文武雙方領導者在朝向新世紀成熟的文武關係演變過程中，不可避免但卻有益發展的緊張關係？有那些途徑可以用來解釋美國後冷戰時期的文武關係？未來可能發展的趨勢為何？就現有相關文獻分析，至少有五種途徑對於美國後冷戰時期的文武關係演變具有或多或少的解釋力：（1）新制度主義途徑；（2）菁英途徑；（3）專斷－委任途徑；（4）次系統鬆散結合途徑；以及（5）國防安全環境因素解釋。在未來可能發展趨勢方面，以下的幾項變動與美國文武關係息息相關，也是觀察其未來發展的重要變項：（1）文武界限日趨模糊；（2）文人機構的改變；（3）軍隊非傳統性任務的增加；（4）社會文化價值的改變；（5）國防預算的削減；（6）資訊科技的發展；以及（7）軍隊裁減。

Are civil-military relations in the United States today in a state of crisis, or are both military and civilian leaders simply experiencing the inevitable but healthy tensions of a relationship maturing in a new era? Should we be concerned with the direction current civil-military relations in America are headed? What approaches could be suggested for explaining the state of U.S. Civil-military relations in the Post-Cold War? This article seeks to explore these issues.Five approaches in this article are suggested for the explanation of U.S. post-cold war civil-military relations: (a) new institutionalist approach; (b) influential elite approach; (c) assertive-delegative typology; (d) subsystem loose coupling approach; and (e) a view from the perspective of international security environment.Several trends are identified as being responsible for the changes in civil-military relations: (a) increasing ambiguity in the boundary between the military and civilianrealms; (b) changes of civilian institutions; (c) the increased role of nontraditional missions of the military; (d) domestic demands on the military and society's cultural imperatives; (e) decline in defense budgets; (f) development of information technology; and (g) rapid drawdown of the military.