The glass firewall between military and civil administration

is a glass-like firewall between American military administration and civil administration forged during the Progressive era. Turn-of-the-century publ ic administration theory was quite ecumenical. However, under the spell of Progressive state theory post-war public administration theory assumed that civil administrators could ignore military matters. The separation of mili tary and civil administration is now beginning to adversely affect the Amer ican people. The Department of Defense conceived a Total Force Doctrine tha t war neither substantially discussed with nor understood by civilian admin istrators. When this doctrine was applied by the Department of Defense in O peration Desert Storm, predictable negative civilian consequences occurred. The glass firewall must go. Progressive state theory and administrative st ate theory were wrong in assuming that these tensions would vanish as the s tare modernized. Public administration must address this scission. In doing so, public administration can recover its ecumenical root and the relevanc e of the field.