IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/apsrev/v96y2002i04p779-793_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick? Veterans in the Political Elite and the American Use of Force

Author

Listed:
  • Gelpi, Christopher
  • Feaver, Peter D.

Abstract

Other research has shown (1) that civilians and the military differ in their views about when and how to use military force; (2) that the opinions of veterans track more closely with military officers than with civilians who never served in the military; and (3) that U.S. civil–military relations shaped Cold War policy debates. We assess whether this opinion gap “matters” for the actual conduct of American foreign policy. We examine the impact of the presence of veterans in the U.S. political elite on the propensity to initiate and escalate militarized interstate disputes between 1816 and 1992. As the percentage of veterans serving in the executive branch and the legislature increases, the probability that the United States will initiate militarized disputes declines. Once a dispute has been initiated, however, the higher the proportion of veterans, the greater the level of force the United States will use in the dispute.

Suggested Citation

  • Gelpi, Christopher & Feaver, Peter D., 2002. "Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick? Veterans in the Political Elite and the American Use of Force," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 96(4), pages 779-793, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:96:y:2002:i:04:p:779-793_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S000305540200045X/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stadelmann, David & Portmann, Marco & Eichenberger, Reiner, 2015. "Military careers of politicians matter for national security policy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 142-156.
    2. Beach, Brian & Jones, Daniel B., 2016. "Business as usual: Politicians with business experience, government finances, and policy outcomes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 131(PA), pages 292-307.
    3. Oosterlinck, Kim & Lacroix, Jean & Méon, Pierre-Guillaume, 2019. "A Positive Effect of Political Dynasties: the Case of France’s 1940 Enabling Act," CEPR Discussion Papers 13871, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Philip B. K. Potter, 2007. "Does Experience Matter?," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 51(3), pages 351-378, June.
    5. Kevin A. Clarke, 2009. "Return of the Phantom Menace," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 26(1), pages 46-66, February.
    6. Amanda A Licht & Susan Hannah Allen, 2018. "Repressing for reputation," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 55(5), pages 582-595, September.
    7. Jacob Ausderan, 2015. "Following an Experienced Shepherd: How a Leader’s Tenure Affects the Outcome of International Crises," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(1), pages 26-45, January.
    8. Benjamin O. Fordham, 2004. "A Very Sharp Sword," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 48(5), pages 632-656, October.
    9. David Stadelmann & Marco Portmann & Reiner Eichenberger, 2018. "Military Service of Politicians, Public Policy, and Parliamentary Decisions," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 64(4), pages 639-666.
    10. Christopher G. Ellison & Margaret S. Kelley & David Leal & Pablo E. Gonzalez, 2022. "How do veterans view gun policies? Evidence from the Guns in American Life Survey," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 103(3), pages 752-768, May.
    11. James D. Kim, 2024. "The Long-run Impact of Childhood Wartime Violence on Preferences for Nuclear Proliferation," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 68(1), pages 108-137, January.
    12. Benjamin O. Fordham, 2008. "Economic Interests and Congressional Voting on Security Issues," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 52(5), pages 623-640, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:96:y:2002:i:04:p:779-793_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/psr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.