“Combining three generations of civil-military relations scholarship and candid interviews with the most knowledgeable national security officials, Silent Coup of the Guardians demonstrates that military influence has risen, and civilian control of the military declined, dramatically in the United  States.

This is a bold, unflinchingly honest, highly significant book; it deserves a very wide readership among our political and military leaders, scholars, the media, and all citizens interested in American government.” 

Dr. Richard H. Kohn, Professor Emeritus of History and Peace, War, and Defense, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“If you wonder why our country keeps winning the war and losing the peace read this book by Col. Todd Schmidt.  As you search for an answer…never forget….process is policy.  Col. Schmidt makes the argument that it is long past due to examine the dominating role of the military in the policy  process of the last few decades and focus on getting a stronger civilian voice at the table.”

Ambassador David C. Miller, President, U.S. Diplomatic Studies Foundation

“Schmidt’s Silent Coup of the Guardians provides intriguing, if not alarming insights on how military elites perceive their roles versus the roles of their civilian overseers. Through interviews with more than 100 senior national security leaders, Schmidt finds military elites play an outsized role in policy formulation, often harbor cynical views of civilian leaders, and think their judgment should carry more weight than civilian policymakers. These “praetorian propensities,” as Schmidt refers to them, raise important questions about the state of civilian control of the armed forces today.”

Dr. Heidi A. Urben, Professor, Georgetown University, author of Party, Politics, and the Post-9/11 Army

“Todd Schmidt has marshaled original evidence from extensive elite interviews on both sides of the civil military divide to announce….Presidents, civilian advisers, interested voters, and senior military officers should read Silent Coup of the Guardians to appreciate how unprepared, constrained, and dependent US commanders in chief have become with respect to best military advice.”

Dr. Damon Coletta, Professor of Political Science, US Air Force Academy

“Todd Schmidt deftly addresses gaps across disciplines with a refreshing perspective. An impressive work that demands a spot on the bookshelf of those who seek to understand ‘why’ there is an increasingly unhealthy civil-military gap. Equal part interrogation of military prominence and an important call to action to correct the growing imbalance.”

Colonel Jaron  Wharton, Ph.D., Chief of Staff of the Army Senior Military Fellow, USMA / West Point