Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Pakistan has the oddest civ-mil relations in the world, but China runs close behind

Pakistan’s military basically doesn’t even pretend that it is subordinate to anybody. And it seems to threaten anyone who criticizes it.

Lt_Gen_David_Halverson_with_Lt_General_Raheel_Sharif
Lt_Gen_David_Halverson_with_Lt_General_Raheel_Sharif

Screen Shot 2015-05-06 at 11.01.41 AM

Screen Shot 2015-05-06 at 11.01.41 AM

Pakistan’s military basically doesn’t even pretend that it is subordinate to anybody. And it seems to threaten anyone who criticizes it.

China is odder. Basically, people seem to call each other out for corruption, but since everybody does it, I wonder if this is really a power struggle.

And remember kids — the danger of poor civ-mil relations isn’t making a coup (at least in our country), but rather than the process of making strategy and decisions will work badly.

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Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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