Political scientist Russell A. Burgos has written an interesting and timely account of his intellectual journey from a “systemically inclined neorealist” to a “leaning constructivist” as a consequence of his active duty service with the U.S. Army in Iraq. In doing so, he offers some astute observations on several of the most important and enduring issues in American foreign and defense policy that are of interest to all international relations scholars. Rather than attempting to comment on the full range of his observations, this essay will focus on one of these—what Captain Burgos calls “the identity of the army in a ‘neo-imperial’ age”—with a view to assessing and bringing to bear some systematic evidence on his observations that the army has become staunchly Republican and conservative and that it sees itself as “separate from and superior to society at large.”Ole R. Holsti's latest book, Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy, revised edition, was published this year.