Civilian Control Research Articles

The sources of military dissent: Why and how the US military contests civilian decisions about the use of force

AbstractHow do militaries push back when they oppose civilian initiatives? This article analyses the sources and character of military dissent, focusing on the United States. It details the sources of military preferences over policy and strategy outcomes, emphasising the interplay of role conceptions with other material and ideational factors. It then presents a repertoire of means – tactics of dissent – through which military leaders can exert pressure, constraining and shaping civilians’ decision-making calculus and the implementation of policy and strategy choices. Empirically, it traces military dissent in the 1990s-era humanitarian interventions; the US's ‘War on Drugs’ beginning in the 1980s; and the Afghanistan surge debate in 2009. In so doing, the article contributes to a broader research programme on military dissent across regime types. It also expands scholars’ understandings of preference formation within militaries and illuminates the various pathways through which military dissent operates and potentially undermines civilian control.

“Every death matters?”: Combat casualties, role conception, and civilian control

AbstractHow do combat missions, defined as an armed confrontation that causes casualties, shape civil-military relations and military’s role conception? This article argues that militaries that incur combat casualties gain a stronger hand in the civil-military equilibrium. This is because casualties affect domestic political opinion and give prominence to the views expressed by military officials. Civilians are then more deferential to professional military advice. In turn, the military obtains considerable operational freedom, and can pick and choose missions which they find desirable. Second, the military’s role conception – an important determinant of military missions, is shaped most prominently by its combat experience. Militaries sustaining casualties obtain leverage vis-à-vis civilians and based on their institutional preference, they either prioritise or avoid non-traditional missions. While making these arguments, this article examines combat casualties, role conception, and civilian control in India. These concepts as a whole and, the Indian case study especially are surprisingly understudied considering it is among the few non-Western democracies with firm civilian control, a record of overseas intervention operations and a military with varying roles and missions. Analysing India’s experience therefore adds to the literature and illuminates the mechanism through which casualties affect civil-military relations.

Civil-Military Relations in Pakistan: Quest for Power and the Role of National Security Council

The military has always played a dominant role in Pakistan for the last seventy years or so. From an administrative and political point of view, Pakistan has inherited a highly imbalanced institutional development. It was working with strong and organized civil and military bureaucracies and disorganized political parties led by self-seeker politicians. The main reason for this institutional imbalance was factional-ridden politics which weakened the political rule in Pakistan. The civilian control of the military is managed in Pakistan if the ruling political group is ready in sharing power and responsibility with the military elites. Since Pakistan is a developing country and the military cannot be an exit from the decision-making process. The sharing of power on particular subjects can take the military away from any direct intervention. The sharing of power and responsibilities can be managed with the application of the convergence theory of Morris Janowitz and the National Security Council is an ideal forum for the interconnectedness of the two main pillars: the civilian and military elites.

Post-2016 military restructuring in Turkey from the perspective of coup-proofing

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the post-2016 military reforms and examines the meaning of civilian oversight and control that these reforms have brought. For almost two decades, the establishment of civilian supremacy over the military has been discussed in terms of democratic control of the armed forces. The article claims that although the post-2016 reforms installed civilian supremacy, they diverge from this approach significantly. Instead, they display the basic characteristics of coup-proofing strategies. The article aims to ignite scholarly interest in and initiate discussions on the conceptual appropriateness of the notion of coup-proofing for capturing Turkey’s civil–military relations since 15 July 2016.

Reforming police oversight in Victoria: lessons from Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the system of civilian oversight of police misconduct and corruption in Victoria and the prospects for reform. It considers the 2018 report and recommendations of a parliamentary ‘Inquiry into the external oversight of police corruption and misconduct in Victoria’ by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) Committee, along with the cases and scandals that fuel calls for reforms to the current system. It compares the extant hybrid model of civilian review and investigation between police and IBAC in Victoria with the civilian control model in Northern Ireland where investigations of police misconduct and corruption are undertaken exclusively by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI). It reflects on the current social and political factors in Victoria which might support or undermine reform in the context of lessons from Northern Ireland, where policing and police oversight underwent extensive reform at the turn of the millennium.

War Crime Clemency: The President's Self-Defeating Pardon

A president’s long-recognized discretion to pardon just about any offense for literally any reason at almost any time leaves little room to argue that such power can be constrained any further by law. Supreme Court decisions, scholarship, and presidential precedent over the last two centuries amply (though grudgingly) support a theory of nearly unilateral and “unfettered” authority, perhaps a last vestige of the British monarchy left in the hands of a democratically accountable chief executive – controversial, but nevertheless constitutional. But when it comes to a specific class of misconduct – war crimes – interpreting and applying this constitutional power requires a second look, for it invariably intersects with another Article II power – a president’s role and authority as the military’s commander-in-chief. Rather than amplifying this other long-recognized discretionary power to wage war, the pardon power arguably weakens it under certain conditions. This intersection is not merely an academic puzzle on the nature of presidential power; it is a collision of a president’s right with a series of quite specific presidential responsibilities and authorities over the military’s criminal justice system he has only because Congress believes that a commander-in-chief should wield them. The collateral damage from this collision ironically harms the very institution and profession the president relies on for military action, advice, and ability. Whether this damage is historically contingent on particular presidents or is a predictable consequence of all such pardons is a question that cannot be answered yet. That is because President Trump’s three war crime pardons in 2019 were historic firsts: never before had a president pardoned any soldier for conduct incidental to combat action that violently victimized a non-combatant who was otherwise protected by the international laws of war from unlawful armed force. They were a proof of concept that a president could indeed “go there;” but they were also a proof of consequences not yet fully explored in the literature and not at all by the courts. In exercising his singular strength by pardoning war crimes, a president’s power and credibility is paradoxically weakened for three reasons: he ignores or rejects the duties imposed on the very institution he relies on to achieve political objectives through armed force; he devalues the professional expertise of his military agents; and he delegitimizes the military criminal justice system that this institution relies on to promote, enforce, and signal its professional commitments to certain martial values, norms, and requirements – including adhering to the laws of war. Flexing muscle on one arm atrophies muscle on the other. The contrary view is that constitutionally required civilian control of the armed forces means his discretion to flex or atrophy his credibility with the military whenever he wants. Trump’s war crime pardons offer an opportunity to explore whether common arguments and conventional applications of the pardon power are entirely relevant to this class of offenses and this kind of offender. This article suggests, because they lead to a self-defeating paradox (the collision between two independent and stout express Article II powers), that they are categorically distinct; it sketches this new prudential argument for curtailing war crime pardons based on a president’s “standing” or relationship he necessarily bears to the military as its commander-in-chief and to the conduct he absolves. Any future case for judicially invalidating such a pardon, for legislating a containment strategy to (at least) deter such a pardon, or for adopting a set of principles for presidential self-restraint, must account for this challenge.

Forms of democratic civilian control over the defense forces of Ukraine

The purpose of the article is to define the concept and types of forms of democratic civilian control over the defense forces. Three aspects are identified in which the forms of democratic civilian control over the defense forces can be considered: 1) the activity aspect, according to which the form of control acts as a complex of actions of its subjects; 2) the analytical aspect, according to which the form of control has its integral element of collecting, highlighting information and data on the controlled object, comparing them with each other, de-termining the patterns and trends inherent in the functioning of the controlled object, modeling the state of the controlled object in the future, depending on the applied management decisions; 3) the organizational aspect, according to which the form of control is a way of organizing the activity of the subjects of control and the con-nections between them. Each of these aspects of the form of control is necessary for the effective implementation of control activities.
 The definitions of the forms of democratic civilian control over the defense forces as united by a single goal, carried out in accordance with the powers of the subjects of control defined in the acts of military legislation, are formulated for a complex of organizational and analytical measures aimed at achieving the goal of control.It was found that the forms of democratic civilian control over the defense forces should be attributed to the pub-lication of public information, the activities of temporary commissions of inquiry, internal audit, external financial control (audit), judicial control, scientific and applied (for example, sociological) research aimed at determining the actual state of control objects. The validity of classifying official investigations, inquiries and pre-trial investigations forms of democratic civil control raises doubts, taking into account the provisions of paragraph 2 of part 1 of arti-cle 1 of the Law of Ukraine “On National Security of Ukraine”, which defines an exhaustive list of types of control.An analysis of the essence and features of the forms of democratic civilian control over the defense forces allows us to make sure that these forms are inherently connected with the content of this control and are determined by the legal status of its subjects. At the same time, the forms of control can be classified by content, by subjects, by legal consequences for objects of control, as well as by timing.

Legitimacy of violence: extra-military versus intra-military legitimacy

ABSTRACT This article is conceptually motivated. By drawing on cases from the U.S. and Israeli militaries, it aims at demonstrating the existence of two separate systems of legitimacy of military violence – extra-military and intra-military – and mapping the gaps between them. It conceptualizes the legitimacy of violence and then maps seven conditions under which gaps are created between the two systems, as follows: the uniqueness of military culture, the extent to which the military does not mirror society, field command’s broadening improvisation and interpretation, ambiguous political directives, the extent to which the military leverages a legitimacy dispute, troops’ resistance, and the diachronic systems of legitimacy. The appearance of these gaps is more likely to present with weakening of civilian control and the break-up of military hierarchy.

Managerialism and the Military: Consequences for the Swedish Armed Forces

This article analyzes civil–military relations and the issue of civilian control through the lens of new managerialism. It illustrates that the means and mechanisms applied by governments to govern the military actually shape its organization and affect its functions in ways not always acknowledged in the civil–military debate. We start by illustrating the gradual introduction of management reforms to the Swedish Armed Forces and the growing focus on audit and evaluation. The article thereafter analyzes the consequences of these managerialist trends for the most central installation of the armed forces–its headquarters. It further exemplifies how such trends affect the work of professionals at the military units. In conclusion, managerialist reforms have not only changed the structure of the organization and the relationship between core and support functions but have also placed limits on the influence of professional judgment.

Long-Term Land Cover Changes in the Western Part of the Korean Demilitarized Zone

After the Korean War, human access to the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) was highly restricted. However, limited agricultural activity was allowed in the Civilian Control Zone (CCZ) surrounding the DMZ. In this study, land cover and vegetation changes in the western DMZ and CCZ from 1919 to 2017 were investigated. Coniferous forests were nearly completely destroyed during the war and were then converted to deciduous forests by ecological succession. Plains in the DMZ and CCZ areas showed different patterns of land cover changes. In the DMZ, pre-war rice paddies were gradually transformed into grasslands. These grasslands have not returned to forest, and this may be explained by wildfires set for military purposes or hydrological fluctuations in floodplains. Grasslands near the floodplains in the DMZ are highly valued for conservation as a rare land type. Most grasslands in the CCZ were converted back to rice paddies, consistent with their previous use. After the 1990s, ginseng cultivation in the CCZ increased. In addition, the landscape changes in the Korean DMZ and CCZ were affected by political circumstances between South and North Korea. Our results provide baseline information for the development of ecosystem management and conservation plans for the Korean DMZ and CCZ. Given the high biodiversity and ecological integrity of the Korean DMZ region, transboundary governance for conservation should be designed.

Religion and Military Security: The Military Still Matters

The debate on changes and continuity in the field of security studies before and aftermath of the Cold War expounds certain security issues that have been reformed or changed and those that continue to be essential security concerns after the Cold War. The pervasiveness of military security might have been reconstructed at the aftermath of the Cold War but has remained ubiquitous despite scholarly argumentative prepositions debating its declination. This article uses secondary sources of data analysis by obtaining necessary information from textbooks, libraries, academic journals, online data and articles to examine the nexus between religion and violence leading to the renaissance of international terrorism after the attack of 9/11 that had propelled the involvement of military armed forces in domestic security of democratic governments constituting a debatable encumbrance to the principles of objective civilian control of the military entrenched in the liberal democracy and a justifiable argument for the potency of military security in the present liberal democratic states. It theoretically instantiates the emerging domestic role of the military armed forces signalizing the subjective control of civil-military relations in incongruousness to the objective control as expounded under military professionalism of Samuel Huntington.

HYBRID REGIME AS BARRIER FOR DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION IN PAKISTAN (2008-2015)

This study argues that hybrid regime in Pakistan (2008-2015) with changing exercise has decreased norms of democratic consolidation. Some extensive gains are made in Pakistan during this era 2008-2015 in terms of democratic norms like constitutional amendments and provincial autonomy. Important unique gain is completion of one term as civilian government of Pakistan People’s Party 2008-2013 and the second civilian government of Pakistan Muslim League (N) 2013-2018. Both the civilian regimes have worked as democratic government, but somehow autocratic trend in decision making approach was observed. Political exercise of this hybrid regime in Pakistan created weak condition of the democratic norms which made way for authoritarianism. This regime was tended to be unbalanced, changeable, or both due to weak civil liberties. The civilian control in this political regime was not stable and transparent in decision making. Further, civilian control over five-areas including public policy, elite recruitment, external defense, internal security, and military organization and was not effective. This paper help us to understand why hybrid regime arose which disturbed democratic consolidation process in Pakistan.

Collective Democratic Control of the Armed Forces

Under its 2008 Constitution, Myanmar is undergoing a political transition from a military regime to a more liberalized democratic and constitutional government. The current National League for Democracy government’s reforms are in stagnation, while debates on the political role of the Tatmadaw (the Myanmar military) as guaranteed by the 2008 Constitution continue. A widespread perception persists that civil-military relations in Myanmar lack civilian control and are a barrier to the reform processes. Such assumptions, however, are made in the absence of theoretical analysis. This article will argue that Myanmar’s constitutional government has the right to establish “democratic control,” while the Tatmadaw’s national political role remains significant. Democratic control of Myanmar’s civil-military relations is based on a “collective” rather than a “confrontational” approach—one that is called “collective democratic control.” The current stagnation in reform and in the national reconciliation process are the result of a lack of understanding of the existing structure of civil-military relations, rather than a lack of democratic control of the armed forces.

Military dissent in the United States: are there lessons from Latin america?

ABSTRACT The civil–military relations of the Trump Presidency became increasingly troubled. The President attempted not only to involve the military in partisan politics, but also in counter-protest operations in the face of nationwide demonstrations. Such operations increase the likelihood of human rights abuses by the military, which prides itself on professionalism and public approval. How can officers resist a commander-in-chief pulling them into partisan politics, particularly when this endangers military professionalism and quite possibly democracy itself? This article finds that U.S. military commanders might turn to their counterparts across Latin America for examples and lessons. Commanders in Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil have found innovative waves to resist unwise Presidential orders and potentially save lives in the process. Critically, we find that these instances of justifiable dissent did not result in an erosion of civilian control.

Процессы «демократического транзита» в Латинской Америке в конце XX - начале XXI века и левые силы региона

Democratic transition processes manifested in the Latin American region since the mid-1980s. – the period of the beginning of the “fall” of military dictatorships and the return to civilian control. These processes were directed and organized by left-wing forces, which not only participated in struggle against dictatorships, but also took part in the restoration of key political institutions - elections, courts, and the adoption of new constitutions. This article, based on archival materials, media materials, memoirs, determines the features of the participation of Latin American left forces in the democratic transition, their place in the formed political structures in the context of the legacy of the Comintern and new opportunities.

Respect for gender equality as a component of civilian democratic control over the military organisation of the state

The analysis of numerous scientific publications demonstrates the great relevance of gender studies at the current stage of Ukrainian social development, in almost all spheres of social relations. As for ensuring equal participation of men and women in the functioning of the military organisation of the state, the implementation of such a gender balance contributes to improving civilian control over it through the possibility of developing the capacity of regulatory bodies in gender issues, promoting dialogue between the community and control bodies, and drawing public attention to the problems of accountability of institutions of this organisation. The main purpose of this study is to highlight the state of gender equality in the military organisation of the state through the lens of civilian democratic control. The study determined the state of legislative regulation of the concept of military organisation of the state and civil democratic control. The study analysed the introduction of a gender perspective in Ukraine in the subject matter and the dynamics of establishing a gender balance in the military organisation of the state; the impact on existing trends of legislative initiatives. It is stated that the modern Ukrainian army is mostly “male”. Despite the fact that women are allowed to serve in the military, they do not take part in making socially important decisions, they do not hold high military positions, and career growth is challenging for them. The study identified the main problems of implementing gender equality in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other structures of the Defence Forces of Ukraine, which are more based on social stereotypes of pre-defined roles for men and women. Civil control over the Armed Forces is described as a socio-political process in this area

Revealing stakeholders' motivation and influence in crane conservation in the Republic of Korea: Net‐Map as a tool

AbstractBiodiversity conservation in protected areas requires strict legal limitations to land use. In the Civilian Control Zone (CCZ) of the Republic of Korea (ROK), military control has created an accidental sanctuary for the world's rarest crane species: the white‐naped crane (Antigone vipio) and the red‐crowned crane (Grus japonensis). Yet varying land use demands on the CCZ by stakeholders have caused disagreements in achieving cooperative crane conservation. This paper aims to clarify relevant stakeholders' interconnection and their motives that have led them to either promote or inhibit crane conservation in the Cheorwon Basin of the CCZ. To answer these questions, we conducted participatory Net‐Map interviews and identified stakeholders with a powerful role in crane conservation. Our results identify 44 stakeholders whose trust relations occurred twice as often as conflicts. More than 80% of stakeholders included in this study supported crane conservation initiatives. We attribute local farmers' increased level of environmental stewardship to two key schemes: a community‐led farming project generating financial incentives and a communication channel for stakeholders. Our case study demonstrates that Net‐Map is a valid tool to analyze human‐crane interactions, which is critical to ensure acceptance of legal restrictions to land use as well as crane conservation.

Unequal Civilian Accommodation within Democratic Rule: The Case of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province after the Government–LTTE Conflict

This study analyzes the civil-military relations in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province after the 2009 conflict between the central government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) by drawing upon the theories of Alfred Stepan and David Pion-Berlin and Harold Trinkunas. Stepan posited that there were two dimensions that shaped civil-military relationships: military contestation and prerogatives. This study’s analysis of these two dimensions in the case of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province shows that the civil-military relationship in the region takes shape in the unequal civilian accommodation type. This analysis corresponds to Pion-Berlin and Trinkunas’ theory that high levels of crisis coupled with weak civilian control would pave the way for the military to take on extensive domestic roles and intervene in civilian affairs. This research employs a qualitative method through the examination of existing literature and documents.

Stability abroad, instability at home? Changing UN peace operations and civil–military relations in Global South troop contributing countries

ABSTRACT This article highlights the domestic effects of the ongoing changes in United Nations peacekeeping practice on troop contributing states from the Global South. It juxtaposes scholarship on stabilization, the specific motivations of Global South troop contributing countries, and in particular the effects on civilian control of armed forces of peacekeeping participation. It argues that the “diversionary peace” hypothesis—which posits beneficial effects on civilian control for peacekeeping—has not obtained, and that current developments in United Nations peace operations will negatively affect civil–military relations in postcolonial sending countries. The text suggests avenues for future inquiry. One is the notion that stabilization may lead to a net negative effect on civilian control in unconsolidated democracies. This is due to stabilization's increased militarization, and its turn towards objectives that mimic the counterinsurgency mandates associated with military rule in the Global South, rather than a focus on the socioeconomic well-being of local populations.

Erosion of Civilian Control in Democracies: A Comprehensive Framework for Comparative Analysis

Civilian control of the military is a fundamental attribute of democracy. While democracies are less coup-prone, studies treating civilian control as a dependent variable mostly focus on coups. In this paper, I argue that the factors predicting coups in autocracies, weaken civilian control of the military in democracies in different ways. To capture this difference, I advance a new comprehensive framework that includes the erosion of civilian control by competition, insubordination, and deference. I test the argument under conditions of an intrastate conflict—a conducive environment for the erosion of civilian control. A large-N analysis confirms that while intrastate conflict does not lead to coups in democracies, it increases the military’s involvement in government, pointing to alternative forms of erosion taking place. Further case study—Russia’s First Chechen War—demonstrates the causal logic behind the new framework, contributing to the nuanced comparative analysis of civil-military relations across regimes.