Military Strategy Magazine - Volume 7, Issue 4

Volume 7, Issue 4, Winter 2022 39 The Screenwriter’s Guide to NATO Civil-Military Relations Davis Ellison - King's College London, Department of War Studies About the author Davis Ellison is a PhD student in the King's College London Department of War Studies. His research focuses on NATO's history as a security institution using a civil-military relations approach. He has experience both in Europe and North America on security and defence issues. Disclaimer: This article reflects the views of the author alone and does not represent the views of NATO, its allies, or institutions. “Mandrake, do you recall what Clemenceau once said about war?... He said, ‘War is too important to be left to the generals.’ When he said that, fifty years ago, he may have been right. But today war is too important to be left to the politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought.”[i] Beyond the ramblings on Communist subversion and the theft of ‘bodily fluids’, Base Commander JackD. Ripper’s fictional dialoguewithGroupCaptain Lionel Mandrake in Dr. Strangelove (played by Sterling Hayden and Peter Sellers respectively) is a perceptive commentary on the core issue of civil-military relations. For whom is war “more important”? To cite this article: Ellison, Davis, “The Screenwriter’s Guide to NATO Civil-Military Relations,” Military Strategy Magazine, Volume 7, Issue 4, winter 2022, pages 39-44.

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