Concordance Theory: A Retrospective on the Creation of New Civil–Military Relations Theory

This piece is part of the 50th Anniversary Armed Forces & Society (AF&S) special issue. I am honored to be a part of this selection of essays. I am grateful to my colleagues at AF&S for their expertise and intellectual insights over the years since my original Concordance theory article—“Civil–Military Relations Reconsidered: A Theory of Concordance”—was published in 1995. Any comments made here that reflect on the current state of the academy and my experience with it over the years are in no way directed at AF&S and the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society (IUS-AF&S). Both AF&S and IUS have been extremely supportive of my work and the scholarship of many students, researchers, and academics around the world. I have been proud to be a part of both the journal and the organization that supports the study of civil–military relations. My Concordance theory and its evolution have only benefited because of my affiliation with AF&S and IUS.