The Dilemma behind the Classical Dilemma of Civil—Military Relations

Abstract

There is a common desire to seek a proper equilibrium that will assure civilian superiority over the military and prevent the military's intervention in domestic affairs. This article addresses the unique situation in Israel during the Oslo process, in which the military was deeply involved in the political process and influenced the political echelon by its knowledge and persuasive argumentation, mostly in private intellectual encounters between the echelons. We show how the military led the civilian arm to make choices that eventually determined strategy. The military with its knowledge infrastructure was hegemonic in this encounter, its influence was significant, and civil control was weak or inefficient. The Discourse Space model used in this article provides complementary tools for describing and analyzing the encounter between the echelons. The model provides an appropriate examination of how this encounter was conducted and what outcomes it produced, at least for the Israeli case.