Civil-military Relations Research Articles

Examining the militarised hierarchy of Sierra Leone’s Ebola response and implications for decision making during public health emergencies

BackgroundIn September, 2014, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) called for militarised assistance in response to the rapidly escalating West Africa Ebola Epidemic. Soon after, the United Kingdom deployed its military to Sierra Leone, which (among other contributions) helped to support the establishment of novel and military-led Ebola Virus Disease (Ebola) response centres throughout the country. To examine these civil-military structures and their effects, 110 semi-structured interviews with civilian and military Ebola Response Workers (ERWs) were conducted and analysed using neo-Durkheimian theory.ResultsThe hierarchical Ebola response centres were found to be spaces of ‘conflict attenuation’ for their use of ‘rule-bound niches’, ‘neutral zones’, ‘co-dependence’, and ‘hybridity’, thereby not only easing civil-military relationships (CMRel), but also increasing the efficiency of their application to Ebola response interventions. Furthermore, the hierarchical response centres were also found to be inclusive spaces that further increased efficiency through the decentralisation and localisation of these interventions and daily decision making, albeit for mostly privileged groups and in limited ways.ConclusionsThis demonstrates how hierarchy and localisation can (and perhaps should) go hand-in-hand during future public health emergency responses as a strategy for more robustly including typically marginalised local actors, while also improving necessary efficiency—in other words, an ‘inclusive hierarchical coordination’ that is both operationally viable and an ethical imperative.

Civil-Military Relations in the Age of Populist Nationalism: The Case of Israel

Abstract One underplayed aspect of the current populist zeitgeist is the politicization of the military, adding to the growing list of dangers that democracies face today. Israel, which has experienced its own nationalistic populism since 2010, represents a deviant case with regard to the civil–military dimension. In contrast to the typical pattern of populist leaders enhancing the military's influence to bolster their own power, in Israel, populist politicians have sought to restrain the military top brass from the decision-making process, going as far as delegitimizing them by portraying them as part of the “leftist” out-of-touch elite. In a country in which the lines between the military and civilian spheres have traditionally been blurred and where security officials have played a significant role in decision-making, this has been a noteworthy development in the era of Benjamin Netanyahu. This article advances two causal claims pertaining to the Israeli case. First, perceived military setbacks and political-diplomatic moves associated with the military have diminished the once-hallowed reputation of the Israel Defense Forces. Second, right-wing politicians often view the military top brass as potential political rivals, given the standard practice in Israel of high-ranking generals entering politics upon retirement. The generals’ declining status in Israeli society has opened up the political space for populist nationalists to assault both active and retired security officials whose assessments often clash with the worldview of right-wing politicians.

Democratic Control of the Defence Sector in Ukraine

Ukraine has declared membership in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as its goal. One of the prerequisites for joining both organizations is the stability of institutions that guarantee, among other things, democracy and the rule of law. For Ukraine, exercising effective democratic control is a crucial issue of civil-military relations. The article analyzes individual words, phrases, and terms defining democratic control of the security and defence sector. Due to the method of synthesis, the elaborated material is generalized. The article's results are also based on the author's experience in the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and cooperation with foreign advisers who provided advisory assistance to the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. The article considers democratic control as a problem of democratic governance of the defence sector. It is concluded that democratic defence governance allows for responsive, transparent decision-making, policy development, and policy implementation in a manner, which reinforces democratic control.

The dictator’s legionnaires: foreign recruitment, coups, and uprisings

ABSTRACT Several countries recruit foreign nationals into their armed forces. This is despite the norm of citizen armies and the strong idea that individuals join the military to defend their home country while military service socializes them into good citizens. We argue that foreign recruits can have very specific benefits for some authoritarian governments. Because they lack strong links to society, their loyalties lie with whoever recruited and pays them, not the nation, country, or its citizens. As such, we argue, first, that their recruitment is especially attractive for personalistic rulers. Second, we propose that foreigners’ presence in the armed forces stymies these forces’ ability to carry out coup attempts and deters the occurrence of mass uprisings by signalling the security forces’ willingness to respond with violent repression. Empirical tests for the period 1946–2010 support these arguments. This research expands our understanding of legionnaire recruitment, civil–military relations, and comparative authoritarianism.

A haunting past: British defence, historical narratives, and the politics of presentism

This article examines historical fictions as social processes by which ideas about conflict and warfare are constructed and narrated within society. Focusing on Britain, it explores ‘truth telling’ about the past in an applied context, examining efforts to construct and sustain narratives about Britain’s military past and their role in upholding forms of political and societal consensus that underpin the development and use of military power. We offer a typology of the ways in which Western liberal states shape and mobilise historical fictions within their distinctive forms of militarism and civil-military relations: ‘Telling Stories’—curating and sustaining social understandings of military power through public displays, museums, and ceremonies; ‘Hiding Pasts’—using state power to shape academic research and to occlude aspects of the military past; and ‘Knowing War’—legitimating the state and armed forces’ claims to a monopoly of authoritative knowledge about war and security.

Drivers Keeping Civil-Military Relations in Equilibrium in Malawi: A Quantitative Approach

This study examined the factors that keep civil-military relations in equilibrium in Malawi. A quantitative approach was used in descriptive and explanatory research designs. The response variable of the study is the military as a fulcrum of civil-military relations. Eight explanatory variables; merit-based promotions, merit-based appointments, joint training and education between the military, citizenry and government officials, representational recruitment, reforms of the military institution, specialisation of the key civil-military relations players on defence matters, professionalization through professional military education and delivery of public goods and services were identified and responded to by civilians, the military, elected authorities, civil authorities and the judiciary. The structured questionnaire survey was used to collect data. Cronbach’s alpha technique was used to test the instrument’s reliability. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression in SPSS version 20. The results revealed that all eight explanatory variables have a significant positive impact on keeping civil-military relations in equilibrium in Malawi. The study found that the contribution of the factors varied in influence. Delivery of public goods and services had more influence, seconded by merit-based promotions and joint training and specialisation on defence matters being the least influential variables of the military as a fulcrum of civil-military relations and a precondition for democratisation. Further research is recommended to assess the roles of the key civil-military relations players in Malawi.

The Social Aspect of Indonesian Armed Forces in The Shift of National Defense System Paradigm

The social aspect of Indonesian Armed Forces (Tentara Nasional Indonesia/TNI) cannot be separated from the shifting of national defense system paradigm. In term of civil-military relationship, it can be traced by the rise of civil service contribution such as government and non-government elements in anticipating future threats to the region. The perception of threat from global scope to regional scope as well as national has been interpreted as the threat to national security, which is a democratic government ruled by civilian based on good governance principles is supported by military in tackling the threat to national security and society. This paper will describe some developments of social aspects in the context of the change of state defense system. This paper will focus on analyzing the efforts of government for achieving accountable governance through assessing socio-political elements of national security. A conclusion will provide an overview in regard to the development of a conceptual model of existing military and civilian integration in the management of the transformation of the national security system to promote democracy in Indonesia..

U.S. Military Should Not Be in My Backyard: Conjoint Experiments in Japan

The war in Ukraine has manifested the critical importance of the American alliance network and the swift and effective deployment of necessary military assets. But do citizens of the U.S. allies support the deployment of such advanced, thus controversial, military assets in their countries? To examine this question, we administered two conjoint experiments in Japan, a critical U.S. ally in Asia. The results show the Japanese citizens’ strong Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) sentiment: They value the U.S.-Japan alliance per se but do not want those advanced arms (specifically, Osprey and F-35 fighter jets) to be deployed in their vicinity, particularly when the U.S. military operates them. Our study contributes to the literature on alliance politics and civil-military relations by emphasizing the importance of paying close attention to local public opposition as a potential source of instability in global military alliances.

Civil-military Relations in Mexico: From One-Party Dominance to Post-Transitional Insecurity

While far from ideal, civil-military relations in Mexico in the second half of the twentieth century stood apart from the Latin American trend towards military government and dictatorship. Over the course of the last three decades, however, drug-trafficking, organised crime and high levels of violence and insecurity have deeply transformed this historical pattern with Mexico experiencing a clearcut process of militarization and becoming part of a broad Latin American trend. This article investigates the forces behind and the features of the remarkable political and ideological turnaround with respect to Mexico’s military and militarization. To provide proper context, it first examines the evolution of civil-military relations in Mexico during the era of PRI dominance (ca. 1945-ca. 1985) and the subsequent challenges of a democratic recasting of civil-military relations. It then studies how from the 1990s onwards drug trafficking (and its mutation into organised crime) and an escalating security crisis affected civil-military relations. The last section critically examines the unprecedented promotion of military roles and prerogatives during the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024). The conclusion argues that the shifting relations between civilians and soldiers in Mexico are likely to weaken civilian control over the military and hence risk democratic backsliding.

Military in Watershed Restoration: A Multistakeholder Study on the Involvement the Indonesian Military in Citarum River Conservation

The Citarum watershed, Indonesia, was notorious for being the most polluted and destroyed in Indonesia. In 2018, the Indonesian Government created a new policy to restore this watershed, named Citarum Harum, by putting together multiple actors to combat watershed degradation, including one unique actor, namely the Indonesian military. This anomaly had created a new pattern and dynamics in watershed restoration. Historically, Indonesia had a peculiar civil-military relationship with the past military government. This creates a unique framework for how actors currently react to military involvement. This article examines these phenomena and elucidates the effectiveness of military involvement in watershed restoration. The study was conducted by the Citarum Harum watershed restoration programme in West Java, Indonesia. This study used in-depth interviews and multi-level stakeholder influence mapping on multiple informants involved in the restoration. The findings indicate a good shift in actor relations that creates improvements in watershed restoration. However, several other conditions also arise from the military's involvement, such as overlapping authorities, incompetency on some technicalities, desynchronization, and a shift in public perception. These problems require some adjustment in the roles of both civil and military personnel in the restoration programme to optimise the military's involvement further.

Reframing Civil–Military Relations in the EU: Insights From the Drone Strategy 2.0

AbstractIn November 2022, the European Commission presented its Drone Strategy 2.0 with two main objectives: to build the European Union's (EU's) drone service market and to strengthen the Union's civil, security and defence industry capabilities and synergies. From the Commission's perspective, accelerating the integration of drones in Europe's airspace has the potential to enable progress on numerous policy objectives, such as the green transition, urban mobility, industrial renewal and cutting‐edge R&D in the civil–military domain. In this commentary, though, we argue that the Strategy is indicative of wider contemporary trends in EU policy‐making regarding cross‐cutting policy agendas, industry‐centred R&D ambitions and the identification and promotion of infrastructural goals enabling further civil–military co‐operation. These tendencies capture the growing importance of dual‐use technologies, both in society at large and in the security and military domains. This is particularly relevant in the current European context of growing military expenditure with the war in Ukraine.

Populism and civil–military relations

ABSTRACT Scholars largely view populism as a democratic game and study it through the lens of civilian mass politics, thereby, dismissing the role of the military elite. Nevertheless, populist mobilization may introduce new dynamics into the political landscape of countries that have a long history of politically active militaries. This article scrutinizes the degree and type of civilian control of the military in populist settings. It primarily contends that incumbent populists tend to limit the veto power of the military. However, civilianization in populist regimes does not occur through a consistent reform agenda geared towards democratic governance of the security sector. Populists instead seek to gain personal control of the military through individual, communal, or ideological ties to civilian leadership. The personal model does not aim to hinder the military’s political influence. On the contrary, it politicizes the army and seeks to use it under civilian authority towards shared goals. However, populism operates on shaky ground due to the institutional decay it causes.

The military before the march: Civil-military grand bargains and the emergence of nonviolent resistance in autocracies

This article contributes to growing efforts to explain when nonviolent resistance campaigns emerge in autocratic regimes. Building from a novel framework for distinguishing civil-military relations in autocracies, it contends that regimes in which military and political leaders engage in a ‘grand bargain’ generate opportunity structures that are especially amenable to nonviolent resistance. Militaries in these regimes exhibit distinctive characteristics – they are corporate, cohesive institutions as opposed to fragmented in structure and also wield political influence in regime institutions. Consequently, these militaries are especially inclined to care about their societal reputations and to retain their institutional independence from the regime’s political leaders. These factors together can lessen expectations among activists that the military will repress protests and increase the odds of elite splits in the face of mass movements. They also render the military more receptive to nonviolent protest tactics. We operationalize the concept of grand bargains with indicators from three datasets on civil-military relations and autocratic regimes. We then test the argument quantitatively using data on the onset of nonviolent resistance campaigns, as well as events-level data on nonviolent resistance campaigns. The findings support claims that civil-military grand bargains make nonviolent resistance in autocracies more likely, contributing to scholarship on this vital topic.

Security Sector Reform in 2023 Thailand: Guaranteeing No Civilian Control

Abstract: Thailand has yet to undertake security sector reforms that place security forces under effective elected civilian leadership. Instead, it has prioritized improving security force efficiency through digital technology, thus minimizing civilian oversight. This study examines Thai security sector actors and the evolution of civil-military relations and general security sector reform in Thailand. It then analyzes two areas where security sector changes are being contemplated. The paper argues that the military’s long-entrenched political power will likely prevent any security sector reform facilitating civilian control from being implemented unless civilians acquiesce to military control over security sector reforms.

Economic Sanctions and Civil–Military Relations in Target Countries

How do economic sanctions affect civil–military relations in targeted states? Though much research has focused on how external military threats affect civil–military relations, no study to date has offered a thorough assessment of the degree to which non-military threats, particularly sanctions, alter civil–military dynamics. We posit that sanctions alter civil–military bargaining in ways that increase the military’s role in political decision-making, ultimately lessening civilian control. However, we also posit that targeted regime leaders want to fulfill as many of the military’s demands as possible with their restricted pot of resources, ultimately leading to sanctions’ limited role in observed coup attempts. We substantiate our theoretical claims using time-series, cross-national data on economic sanctions, civilian control, and coup attempts.

Following Orders or Following the Oath? Assessing Democratic Norm Endorsement Among Service Academy Cadets

How strongly embraced within the officer corps is the commitment to supporting and defending the Constitution and to the ethic of nonpartisanship? This article answers that question through a 2019/2020 survey of 1,470 service academy students, including with a list experiment. The results show that cadets engage in what we term “selective endorsement” of norms, whereby they endorse norms as long as they are not in tension with their partisan identities. In particular, the list experiment reveals that when provided an opportunity to obscure their preferences, many cadets supported following civilian orders, even those at odds with democratic traditions—and that partisan dynamics may play a role in determining how they respond. The article has important implications for scholarly research on norm robustness and socialization, as well as practical consequences for civil-military relations in light of ongoing challenges to democracy in the United States today.

Transformative leadership: President Ricardo Lagos and democratic civilian control of armed forces in Chile (2000–2006)

AbstractIn Chile, military subordination to civilians has been a difficult, gradual, and unaccomplished process. Using a qualitative approach, this case study analyzes how a head of state—President Ricardo Lagos (2000–2006)—introduced without constitutional prerogatives important changes in military subordination to civilian authorities. Based on political leadership studies and civil–military relations theory, we analyze the constitutional reforms that ended military presence in the Senate, and two policy changes—military acquisitions and human rights. We argue that President Lagos' transformation type of effective leadership made these changes possible.

The Rebel and the Politician: Developing a Typology of Insurgent Civil–Military Relations

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have brought returned focus to civil–military relations in complex, fluid, and “asymmetric” environments. The close integration of politics and violence has led to renewed calls for more careful civilian control and involvement in strategy-making and operational design. While scholars and practitioners have struggled with this pressing task, so have the insurgent organizations that the United States and others have been fighting against. And, in some ways, rebels have been more successful in harmonizing military and political efforts. Yet, there is little research into the form and implications of their civil–military balance. This article constructs a typology of rebel civil–military relations that maps the overlap of an intensive form of civilian control, political integration, and the degree of military professionalization. The typology is developed by categorizing a range of prominent organizations operative in contemporary and past civil wars and considering how these patterns might influence insurgents’ pursuit of intricately intertwined political and military goals. This theory development exercise—intended for hypothesis generation to inform future avenues of research—has implications for how we understand insurgency and state-based civil–military relations in unstable environments.

“We Are not into Politics, but Politics Is into Us”: The Politicization of the Ghana Armed Forces Through Patronage Exchanges between Political Elites and Military Leaders

AbstractThroughout Ghana’s political history, soldiers have inspired socio-political change. Based on fieldwork with the Ghanaian military, this article contributes to literature on militaries and civil-military relations in Africa. Agyekum analyzes how the politicization of the military impacts dynamics within the barracks, while highlighting how the country’s political class endeavors to diminish the armed forces’ societal and political influence as a way to gain control over the institution through patronage exchanges. Since the early 2000s, the elite’s strategy entices individual soldiers as well as the whole institution through the politicization of promotions and appointments, recruitment, better service conditions, and infrastructural projects in the barracks.

Revisiting the 2011 Arab Spring; New Perspectives and the International Community Response to Crises in the 21st Century

The Arab Spring of 2011 was a phenomenal event that shook the world and took most policymakers, international actors, and world leaders by surprise. A spontaneous event that started with a man in Tunisia spread like wildfire throughout the Arab world and burst into uncontrollable outrage against the formerly accepted repressive rule and established monarchy in the Middle East. This paper revisited the circumstance that surrounds the uprising and present dimensions by employing thoughts from concepts like globalization, civil-military relations and finally argued a counterfactual analysis of the response to the crises from the international community. Why would the same trend of events produce different outcomes? Why did the US and Russia react with varying degrees of pressure? Is the African Union a toothless bulldog as widely touted? These questions are central to the development of the historical analysis of this paper in an effort to provide thought-provoking answers.