Episode Details

President Donald Trump’s mobilization of the National Guard in a few U.S. cities in recent months has reignited debate about when — and whether — federal troops should be used on U.S. soil. 

Does a president have the authority to deploy state National Guard units against a governor's objection? If so, what does that mean for the balance of power between civilian and military authority?

MPR News guest host Catharine Richert talks with a political scientist who studies civil–military relations and a law professor who studies national security to help us understand what’s at stake — legally, politically, and for the U.S. tradition of keeping the military out of domestic affairs.   

Guests:

• Laura Dickinson is a professor of national security law and constitutional law at the George Washington University Law School. She is also the author of “Outsourcing War and Peace.”
• Ron Krebs is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor and professor of political science at the University of Minnesota where he studies civil-military relations and security policy. He is also the author of “Narrative and the Making of US National Security” and “Fighting for Rights: Military Service and the Politics of Citizenship.”