Citizens and Soldiers

Eliot A. Cohen is the Robert E. Osgood Professor at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.

There is no single book to take the place of this one, nor have the means of raising armies been explained as clearly before. This should have an important place in the current defense policy debate.(Library Journal) After myriad studies on military manpower policies this excellent study brings something new: a historical, philosophical and geopolitical approach that goes well beyond the policy issues of the day.(Foreign Affairs) A superbly crafted study of military service which must be viewed not only as fine political science but also as an invaluable starting point for future debate.(Commentary) An outstanding analysis of America's difficulties in settling on a durable system of peacetime military service. Citizens and Soldiers certainly belongs on the reading list of any course on national security policy.(The American Political Science Review) This is security studies at its best.(Journal of Policy Analysis & Management) The question of how far a nation should maintain a standing army, and how it should be organized, has nearly always been a controversial one. Eliot Cohen has ably woven the strands of this complicated problem into a well-balanced and well-organized book, and probably one which is as interesting as the subject allows.(International Affairs) Cohen's treatment of the aspects pertinent to a viable military manpower policy for a nation such as ours is evenhanded and well-informed.(Armed Forces & Society) Cohen's dispassionate and detailed analysis of the factors that shape military manpower policies is a scholarly contribution that not only aids our understanding of the political, historical, economic, and military factors that shape them but also informs us of key factors that need to be considered in altering military manpower policies in the future. Furthermore, the book is good reading.(The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science)