Best Practices for Military Professionals When Civilians Violate Civil-Military Norms

Theorists and practitioners have a well-developed list of best practices for American military professionals under conditions of “regular order.” The Open Letter from September 2022 signed by the retired Secretaries of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is a useful summary of those best practices. But that rubric itself depends on a deeper acceptance by all of the relevant parties of some fundamental norms of democratic civil-military relations, including the norm not to break free from the limits of self-restraint. What happens when key actors abandon those norms and press the limits in order to exercise their prerogatives to the full extent possible? Do the same best practices that work under regular order work in such a setting? If not, what adjustments should be considered?