The Eighteenth Gap Preserving the Commander's Legal Maneuver Space on 'Battlefield Next'

摘要

The eighteenth gap exists, both internally within the Army and externally among policy makers, pundits, and the public at large. Only constant vigilance to counter misperceptions and misunderstanding will create sustained momentum to close the gap. Commanders and their lawyers alert to the dangers of seemingly convincing "experts" on the law of war must know the law as it is-and separate out the aspirations of the "convincing authorities." Military lawyers especially must master the law as it is. They must also assiduously understand the threat, the "influencers" of the law of war, those who would see it change through aspiration or editorial. Only total mastery of the law as it is will generate the level of confidence, at the critical stress filled life-or-death moment, to give the commander the unequivocally correct legal advice.