The Soldier and the State

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The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations

First edition
Author	Samuel P. Huntington
Language	English
Subject	Civil-Military Relations
Publisher	Belknap Press
Publication date	1957
Publication place	United States
Pages	534
ISBN	0-674-81736-2
OCLC	45093643

The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations is a 1957 book written by political scientist Samuel P. Huntington. In the book, Huntington advances the theory of objective civilian control, according to which the optimal means of asserting control over the armed forces is to professionalize them. This is in contrast to subjective control, which involves placing legal and institutional restrictions on the military's autonomy. Edward M. Coffman has written that "[a]nyone seriously interested in American military history has to come to terms with Samuel P. Huntington's The Soldier and the State.^[1]