<span class="vcard">Lt. Col. Daniel Maurer</span>

Lt. Col. Daniel Maurer

Guest Author

Dan Maurer (@dan_maurer) is a U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and Judge Advocate, currently an assistant professor of law at the U.S. Military Academy and Non-Resident Fellow with West Point’s Modern War Institute. He is the author of Crisis, Agency, and Law in US Civil Military Relations (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and a co-editor (with Lionel Beehner and Risa Brooks) of the forthcoming Reconsidering American Civil-Military Relations: The Military, Society, Politics, and Modern War (Oxford University Press, 2020). His shorter works on civil-military relations and military justice can be found here. His other scholarship on both can be found here. The views are entirely his own and do not reflect the positions of the U.S. military or West Point specifically.

Articles by this author:

Former General Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s recently pardoned national security adviser, gives a thumbs up as he departs a protest of the outcome of the 2020 presidential election outside the Supreme Court on December 12, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump supporters walk around him. Most, including Flynn, do not wear face masks.
Trump shakes hands with Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley after addressing the troops at Bagram Air Field during a surprise Thanksgiving day visit, on November 28, 2019 in Afghanistan.
A collage of tweets and statements. The first statement by Mike Mullen, Seventeenth chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff reads on June 2, 2020, “I cannot remain silent. Our fellow citizens are not the enemy.” A tweet from Admiral Mike Franken, no date, reads, “I’m a retired three-star admiral running for United States Senate in Iowa. The military is a tool of last resort to defend our nation. It is not a weapon to use against our citizens or our states.” A tweet from Tony Thomas on June 1, 2020 reads, “The ‘battle space’ of America??? Not what America needs to hear…ever, unless we are invaded by an adversary or experience a constitutional failure…ie a Civil War…” A tweet from retired General Martin E. Dempsey, no date, reads, “America’s military, our sons and daughters, will place themselves at risk to protect their fellow citizens. Their job is unimaginably hard overseas; harder at home. Respect them, for they respect you. America is not a battleground. Our fellow citizens are not the enemy. #BeBetter” A tweet from General Michael Hayden, no date, reads, “I was appalled to see him in his battle dress. Mi [cut off] a general?!?) should not have walked over to th [cut off] with Trump.” A tweet from Mark Hertling reads, “’Dominating the battle space,’ democratic values.” A tweet from Berry R McCaffrey on June 1, 2020 reads, “On MSNBC. Monday. 1 June. 11 pm ET. Brian Williams. Trump and the Insurrection Act. The murder of George Floyd by a police officer was the spark that detonated the anger at injustice. Using military forces other than Nat Guard would be inflammatory.” A tweet by @stavridisj, no date, reads, “American tradition says the use of active duty [cut off] to quell domestic disputes should be absol [cut off] resort and done at the request of not over the [cut off] objection of governors. I agree with that – th [cut off] role for the National Guard not active duty.” The last statement comes from an article by Jeffrey Goldberg and reads, “James Mattis denounces President Trump, describes him as threat to the Constitution. In an extraordinary condemnation, the former defense secretary [cut off] protestors and says the president is trying to turn Americans against [cut off] another.”

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