Governing Insecurity: Democratic Control of Military and Security Establishments in Transitional Democracies

Abstract

In the post-Cold War era democratic institutions have widely come to be regarded as the only legitimate forms of governance. But the longstanding legacies of military rule cast a shadow over many newly instituted democratic regimes. Moreover, the fact that many societies have experienced an erosion of order and government disintegration under the pressures of violent conflict and internal war poses some intractable obstacles or challenges to the institutionalisation of democracy and human security.