Commander-in-Chief
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- 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.
The United States Constitution designates the President of the United States as commander-in-chief of the U.S. military. 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.
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Commonwealth
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.
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. It is intended that the two commands-in-chief will soon be combined under a single Commander-in-Chief Fleet, who will be, as now, separate from the professional head of the Navy, known as the First Sea Lord.
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 Commander-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 Commander-in-Chief of the Air Defence of Great Britain. Currently there are two air officer commanders-in-chief, Air Officer Commander-in-Chief Strike Command and Air Officer Commander-in-Chief Personnel and Training Command.
Egypt
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.
France
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.
Germany
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.
India
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.
People's Republic of China
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.
Switzerland
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.
United States
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 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.
Commander-in-Chief reserved for the President
On October 24, 2002, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld announced that the title of "Commander-in-Chief" would thereafter be reserved for the President, and that armed forces CINCs would shorten their title to "commander." They are typically referred to as combatant commanders, heading what are now known as Unified Combatant Commands. The title has taken on prominent importance in the political debate in the United States in the context of the "War against Terrorism" [2].
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.
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.de:Oberbefehlshaber fr:Commandant nl:Opperbevelhebber no:Øverstkommanderende sv:Överbefälhavare vi:Tổng tư lệnh