March 14, 2025
Will Trump Reshape the American Military
Last month, the Trump administration carried out a large-scale firing of senior military leaders, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief of Naval operations, the vice chief of staff of the Air Force, and the top military lawyers from the Army, Navy, and Air Force. While expected, these moves were nonetheless largely unprecedented, upending longstanding bipartisan and civil-military norms around the continuity of military leadership across political transitions to a new administration. Kori Schake and Erica Frantz join Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend on this week’s episode to shed light on what the Trump administration’s dismissals of military leaders might mean for the state of U.S. civil-military relations, the health of U.S. democracy, and the conduct of U.S. foreign policy,
Kori Schake is a Senior Fellow and the Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
Erica Frantz is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University and a co-author of The Origins of Elected Strongmen.
More from CNAS
-
Mike McFaul on Autocrats vs Democrats
Podcast
Are we in a new Cold War? That is the question Mike McFaul takes on in his new book, Autocrats versus Democrats: Russia, China, America, and the New Global Disorder. McFaul ar...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor & Jim Townsend
-
A New Era of Strongman Rulers Is Upon Us
Commentary
The consequences of strongman rule also seep into the fabric of economies and everyday life....
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor
-
Did Europe Change Trump's Mind on Ukraine?
Podcast
The Trump administration made a major move this week in its announcement of sanctions on major Russian oil companies Rosneft and Luke Oil, along with 31 subsidiaries. This fol...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor & Jim Townsend
-
Video
Transatlantic Security / Energy, Economics & Security
Bloomberg Tech | Day 1 | Opening Night DebateGeoffrey Gertz, senior fellow, joined Bloomberg Tech's opening night debate and attempted to answer the question “Is Europe Too Late to Compete in the Chip War?” The U.S. and ...
By Geoffrey Gertz
