Commander-in-Chief
For the television series, see Commander in Chief (TV series).A
Commander-in-Chief is the commander of a nation's
military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military competencies which reside in a nation-state's executive, head of state or government. Oftentimes a given country's Commander-in-Chief need not be or have been a commissioned officer or even a veteran, and it is by this legal statute that
civilian control of the military is realized in states where it is constitutionally required.
The term "commander-in-chief" was first used by
King Charles I of England in
1639. A nation's
head of state usually holds the position of national commander-in-chief, even if effective executive power is held by a separate
head of government. Colonial governors are also often appointed commander-in-chief of the military forces in their colonies. In
NATO terminology commander-in chief is often abbreviated to
C-in-C or
CINC (pronounced "sink").
Below the national commander-in-chief are often appointed various regional commanders-in-chief. For example, at the start of the
Second World War the
Royal Navy had no fewer than nine Commanders-in-Chief, from
Commander-in-Chief Portsmouth to
Commander-in-Chief China Station. Such local commanders-in-chief usually have full decision-making authority.
NATO has also established various commands-in-chief, e.g.
Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces North,
Commander-in-Chief East Atlantic, etc.
In the
Commonwealth of Nations, as elsewhere, the head of state invariably holds the title of Commander-in-Chief, though it is usual for
Governors and
Governors-General also to be Commander-in-Chief in their respective territories.
Australia
The
Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia provides that: "The command in chief of the naval and military forces of the Commonwealth is vested in the
Governor-General as the Queen's representative".
Canada
The situation in Canada as to the identity of the
national Commander-in-Chief is slightly complex. The
British North America Act of
1867 (now renamed the Constitution Act 1867) provides that: "The Command-in-Chief of the Land and Naval Militia, and of all Naval and Military Forces, of and in Canada, is hereby declared to continue to be vested in the Queen."
The Militia Act of 1904 provided that: "The Command-in-Chief of the Militia is declared to continue and be vested in the King, and shall be administered by His Majesty or by the Governor-General as his representative". Since that time Governors-General have been known by the title of "Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief in and over Canada". With the creation of Canadian naval and air forces in 1910 and 1919 respectively, the Governor-General gained command-in-chief over those forces as well. The Letters Patent of King George VI transferred all the duties of Head of State of Canada to the Governor General in 1947 and the new Commission of Appointment referred to the Office of Governor General and Commander-in-Chief in and over Canada. Through longstanding parliamentary practice, the
Prime Minister of Canada has
de facto command and control powers over the Canadian Armed Forces; however all declarations of war must be signed by the
Governor General.
Hong Kong
When Hong Kong was a British colony the
Governor was the Commander-in-Chief of Hong Kong, although there was also a Commander of the
British Forces in Hong Kong. (After the
transfer of sovereignty the commander of the
People's Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison are PLA personnel from the
mainland.)
New Zealand
The
Governor-General is designated in the Letters Patent Constituting the Office of Governor-General 1983 and the Defence Act 1990 as "Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief". Although the Defence Act refers to the powers of the office none are described and this is left to
common law,
royal prerogative and administrational and operational practice.
United Kingdom
The title Commander-in-Chief is rarely used by the
Sovereign, but usually refers to local or service commanders-in-chief. However, it is constitutionally correct to describe the Sovereign as being the Commander-in-Chief. Through longstanding parliamentary practice, the
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has
de facto command and control powers over the
British Armed Forces.
Royal Navy
In the
Royal Navy, the overall head of the Navy is known as the
Lord High Admiral, and the post has been variously held by the monarch, an individual admiral, or by a board of commissioners. There have in addition long been many commanders-in-chief in charge of Royal Navy ships in foreign stations. During the
French Revolutionary and
Napoleonic Wars, the term was extended to cover the senior Admiral in a theatre of the war, such as the
Mediterranean or
North Sea.
In the 1930s the Royal Navy had no fewer than nine commanders-in-chief; today there are two - the
Commander-in-Chief Fleet and the
Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command.
British Army
In the
British Army, the office of General in Chief Command, later renamed
Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, was instituted after the Restoration in 1660. Between 1672 and 1904, the title Commander-in-Chief was officially used for the general in charge of the Army, after which the title
Chief of the General Staff was adopted. There existed also in times of war, and in places such as India, regional commanders-in-chief. In addition, colonial governors are and were usually appointed Commander-in-Chief in and over their colonies.
Royal Air Force
The
Royal Air Force uses the term "Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief" (sometimes shortened to Commander-in-Chief) to describe those officers in charge of a
command. An early example of air force usage occurred on
1 January 1925 when
Air Vice-Marshal Sir
John Salmond was appointed Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the
Air Defence of Great Britain. Currently there are two air officers commanding-in-chief, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief
Strike Command and Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief
Personnel and Training Command.
The
Egyptian system appears to be an exception to the prevailing systems. The
President of the Republic holds the
ceremonial title of
Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces while a member of the
Government holds the position Commander-in-Chief. This person tends to be the
Minister for Defence. The
President still remains the only individual capable of declaring war. So far all Egyptian presidents have been former military officers, and during the
Yom Kippur War the President played a major role at all levels of the planing of the war, and was in a literal sense
Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces giving direct orders to the commanders from the headquarters during the war as
field marshal of the army, colonel general of the airforce and air defence forces and admiral of the navy.
Anwar el-Sadat often wore his military uniform, while
Hosni Mubarak has abandonded this tradition. However Hosni Mubarak holds the same ranks during war time.
In
France, the
President of the Republic holds the title of
"Chef des Armées" ("Chief of the Armies"). He is the supreme authority for military affairs, and is the only competent authority for the use of nuclear weapons.
Since the reign of
Louis XIV France has been strongly centralized. After crushing local nobles engaged in warlordism, the Kings of France retained all authority (
"Droit Divin", "divine authority") with the help of able yet discreet Prime ministers (
Mazarin,
Richelieu).
The 1789 Revolution transferred the supreme authority to the King (in the context of the short-lived constitutional Monarchy), then to the multi-member
Comité de Salut Public during the
Convention, and later to the
Directoire, before being regained in the hands of
Consul Napoléon Bonaparte, later
Emperor Napoléon I, alone.
The
Restauration restored authority of the King, in an absolute, then constitutional way before being overthrown by the Second Empire. The following
Third Republic was a parliamentary system, where the military authority was held by the President of the Council (Prime Minister).
During
World War II,
Maréchal Philippe Pétain assumed power and held the supreme authority in
Vichy France, while Général
Charles De Gaulle, acting on behalf of the previous regime, founded the
Free French Forces, upon which he held supreme authority all through the war.
The following and short-lived
Fourth Republic was a parliamentary system, which was replaced by the present
Fifth Republic, a
semi-presidential system.
Since the 1955 remilitarization of Western Germany, according to the
Grundgesetz, in times of peace the
Federal Minister of Defence is the Commander-in-Chief of the
Bundeswehr. If the "state of defense" (
Verteidigungsfall) is established by the parliament, the
Chancellor of Germany becomes the commander of the German armed forces.
Before 1948 the
Commander-in-Chief in India reported to the civilian
Governor-General of India. Since independence the duties of the two posts have been merged into a single office, the
President of India, though effective executive power is exercised by ministers in the Government of India. This model has been emulated by most other
Commonwealth republics.
The
Constitution of Italy, article 87, states that the
President of the Republic is the commander of the armed forces and chairman of the supreme defense council constituted by law; he declares war according to the decision of the parliament; however, since the president has no direct executive power, the
Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence have the actual control of the armed forces, while the president retains a supervision role.
Article 93 of the
Constitution of the People's Republic of China places the authority to direct the armed forces of the PRC in the
Central Military Commission. However, Article 80 gives the
President of the People's Republic of China the power to proclaim martial law, proclaim a state of war, and issue mobilization orders. Since the mid-1990's, it has been standard practice to have the President, the CMC Chairman, and the
General Secretary of the Communist Party of China be the same person although the differences in the start of terms means that there is some overlap between an occupant and his predecessor.
In peacetime, the Armed Forces are led by the Chief of the Armed Forces who has the rank of "Corps commander" (
Korpskommandant or
Commandant de corps, ranking
OF-8 in
NATO equivalence). In a time of declared war or national emergency however, the
Federal Assembly appoints a General (
OF-9 by NATO) as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The General acts as the highest military authority, but is subordinate to the
Federal Council, which holds the supreme authority.
Four generals were appointed in Swiss history, General
Henri Dufour during the
Swiss Civil War, General Hans Herzog during the
Franco-Prussian War, General
Ulrich Wille during the First World War, and General
Henri Guisan during the Second World War (
"la Mob", "the
Mobilisation"). Although Switzerland remained neutral during the latter three conflicts, the threat of having its territory used as a battlefield by the much bigger war parties of Germany and France required mobilization of the army.
The
Constitution of the United States gives the title to the
President of the United States, who "shall be Commander-in-Chief of the
Army and
Navy of the United States, and of the
Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States" (See the 1941 Declarations of War[
1] against
Japan and
Germany for how this call is made). The title commander-in-chief has been used from time to time to refer to powerful regional U.S. military leaders (such as
CENTCOM), but the
United States abolished all local commands-in-chief in 2002.
The governors of the several states are also commanders-in-chief of their states' respective
National Guards and other military forces, except when those forces are called into active Federal service. In 1947, the National Security Act made the President, as a consequence of the creation of the
United States Air Force, also the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force of the United States, by extension.
Although the United States presidency was modeled upon the kingship of
Great Britain, and the title of Commander-in-Chief was unlikely to have been understood to confer upon the
President any powers additional to those inherently held by a
Sovereign, the title has increasingly come to be perceived as being a peculiarly military position. This has led to a blurring of the distinction between the President's civil and military responsibilities. It was, for instance, the basis for the trial by
military commission of Dr.
Samuel Mudd.
In the United States, the Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 added a new level of
CINC. Under Goldwater-Nichols, regional CINCs were created to bring a local supreme commander to a conflict, the most well-known of which was CINC
CENTCOM, who was
Norman Schwarzkopf during
Operation Desert Storm.
Political implications
Since the
September 11, 2001 attacks and the declaration of the "
War on Terror", the American media has increasingly referred to the President as the "Commander-in-Chief," even in civil affairs. In the discourse of political opponents, this is often done when discussing the restriction of
civil rights, such as with the
Patriot Act, suggesting a comparison between President
George W. Bush and the military leaders of dictatorial countries. However, ambiguous statements are also regularly made by those who support the Bush Administration, in such a way as to suggest that Bush is commander-in-chief of the nation itself.
President Bush has assumed unprecedented power through
signing statements to laws of dubious consitutional worth, passed by congress, citing his authority as CinC and nothing more[
2].
Authority as Commander-in-Chief on the battlefield
As Commander-in-Chief, the U.S. President outranks any military officer and so has the inherent right to assume command on the battlefield. However, because presidents are rarely present in war zones, and often have less military experience than the military commanders, only two presidents,
George Washington and
James Madison, have so far done so. Washington personally led a Federalized militia force of approximately 12,000 troops to quell the
Whiskey Rebellion during his second term, although he was not present during any of the skirmishing in the bloodless conflict.
During the
War of 1812, President Madison was under enemy fire on August 24, 1814, when American forces were routed by British troops in
Bladensburg, Maryland. Madison, incensed by the American commanding general's incompetence, was on the scene and personally assumed command of the only remaining American force, a naval battery commanded by Commodore
Joshua Barney. He did so to stall the British invasion of the American capital, but his efforts were unsuccessful, and the British
burned Washington over the next two days.
During the
American Civil War, President
Abraham Lincoln considered personally assuming battlefield command of the
Union Army, and studied military texts when he became frustrated by the incompetence and lethargy of his generals. He actually came under enemy fire in
1864 during the Confederate attack on
Fort Stevens in the
District of Columbia, but did not exercise battlefield authority as commander-in-chief at any time.
War on Terror
In the
War on Terrorism President Bush has used these
war powers to justify several controversial acts, i.e.
NSA electronic surveillance program. The administration has used a legal theory known as the
unitary executive theory, to explain that in his duty as Commander-in-Chief the President, with his inherent powers, cannot be bound by law or Congress. In the
NSA warrantless surveillance controversy this was used to suggest he was not required to abide by
FISA.
