Building Security through Insecurity: The Nigerian Military and Counter-Violence Campaigns in the Fourth Republic

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-200
Author(s):  
Segun Joshua ◽  
Daniel Gberevbie ◽  
Kester Onor

Since independence on October 1, 1960, Nigeria has been a victim, at one time or the other, of intra-ethnic, inter-ethnic, religious, and communal conflicts which have undermined the human security of her citizens. Nigeria’s corporate existence had also been threatened by 3 years (1967–1970) civil war which impacted negatively on the well-being of its people. In addition, the inability of the Nigerian Police to cope with the magnitude of the surge of violence in recent years has brought about the idea of involving the military, a core component of traditional security apparatus to deal with internal insecurity. This article is anchored on human security paradigm with reliance on secondary data to analyze the operations of the Nigerian Military in counterviolence campaigns between 1999 and 2017. This article points out that the involvement of the military in internal security has worsened the problem of insecurity due to the military’s unprofessional approach and, at times, deliberate targeting the civilian populace which it is supposed to protect. It, therefore, recommends among others, the need for the Federal Government of Nigeria to urgently review the role of the armed forces in addressing internal security situations in a way that will bring about respect for the rule of engagement in internal security operations and adherence to global best practices.

2021 ◽  
pp. bmjmilitary-2020-001740
Author(s):  
Erin G Lawrence ◽  
N Jones ◽  
N Greenberg ◽  
N T Fear ◽  
S Wessely ◽  
...  

Organisations including the United Kingdom Armed Forces should seek to implement mental health interventions to increase the psychological well-being of their workforce. This editorial briefly presents ten key principles that military forces should consider before implementing such interventions. These include job-focused training; evaluating interventions; the use of internal versus external training providers; the role of leaders; unit cohesion, single versus multiple session psychological interventions; not overgeneralising the applicability of interventions; the need for repeated skills practice; raising awareness and the fallibility of screening.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (22) ◽  
pp. 66-73
Author(s):  
Mahfutt Mahfutt ◽  
Khairil Anwar ◽  
Billi Belladona Matindas

The position of the Military Court is a body that executes the judicial power in the circle of the Indonesian National Armed Forces to enforce the law and justice with due observance of the interest in the state defense and safety. The Military Court is authorized to try the crimes committed by someone who when committing such crime is a soldier of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, a member of a group or office or body or equal to a soldier pursuant to the Law and someone is not included in the said group as set forth in the Law Number 31 of 1997 on Military Court. Following the reform of 1988, the existence of the Military Court is developed by some activists and the public that observe the Military Court, insisting the Parliament of the Republic of Indonesia to revise Law Number 31 of 1997 on Military Court, with the focus point for a soldier of the Indonesian National Armed Forces who commits a general crime to be tried in the General Court with the reason that the Military Court practice is closed in nature, and another reason is the equalization of rights before the law. The method used in this research is the normative law research that is carried out to obtain the necessary data relating to the problem. The data used is secondary data consisting of primary law materials, secondary law materials, and tertiary law materials. In addition, primary data is also used as the support of the secondary data law materials. The data is analyzed by the qualitative juridical analysis method. The results of the research show that the Military Court is one of the mechanisms that are always tried to be maintained. The outcome from the research discovers that the role of the Martial Court in Indonesia remains effective, fair, and democratic to this date realistically marked by fair punishment within the jurisdiction offended, which corresponds to the need of TNI institution in the aspects of Culture, Benefit, Assurance, and Fairness. It is recommended that the RI Government continuously develop and improve the same by maintaining the role of the Martial Court in punishing criminal offenses committed by military members on the Martial Court system currently in force.


2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 236-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keokam Kraisoraphong ◽  
Brendan Howe

This paper traces experiences of the Royal Thai Armed Forces in un peacekeeping missions. A relatively small troop contributor at first, Thailand later took a high-profile role in the un operations in East Timor during 1999–2005, and has continued since then to support several un peacekeeping forces. The paper first discusses the rationales, development, and current status of Thailand’s contributions. It then goes on to explore how, and to what extent, tasks and duties assigned under the un peacekeeping framework to the dispatched forces, as well as experiences and lessons the Thai armed forces gained from their participation in missions, contribute to the diffusion of norms and the development of functional competencies relating to peacekeeping and human security protection within the Thai military. The paper finds that while the dispatched forces received invaluable benefits in terms of prestige, economic rewards and learning experiences from the peacekeeping operations under the un command, including approaches to humanitarian assistance during the time of acute conflict and monitoring human rights violations, the human security norm underlying these functional competencies has yet to be fully internalized by the military as an institution. Yet, there are some areas, especially in civil-military affairs where competencies developed from the internal security operations and international peacekeeping operations can be mutually reinforcing.


2017 ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
DAVID PION-BERLIN

The nature of 21st century threats to internal security require, in certain situations, the introduction of the armed forces. Can the military be used effectively, and in ways that are consistent with standards of humane conduct, and that will minimize collateral damage? It very much depends on the precise nature of the operation. It is important to know whether an operation coincides with a military’s professional skills and preferences. The probability of operational success and civilian protection is enhanced when the operation is congruent with military capabilities, where soldiers can confine themselves to military-like operations and not engage in police work.  


SAGE Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 215824402092289
Author(s):  
Opeoluwa Adisa Oluyemi

This article uses qualitative research method to obtain information from high-profiled respondents through verbal interaction in semi-structured interviews in addition to some secondary data to examine the military dimension of Niger Delta crisis and its implications on security sectors in Nigeria. The Nigerian militarized political system attests to the influence of long-term military rule in the country thereby the perpetual deployment of Nigerian armed forces to complement the duty of police in ensuring internal security has been found unassailable within Nigerian democratic governments. Consequently, there have been numerous cases of civilian casualties characterizing the historical record of these military interventions in which the case of Niger delta crisis has been no exception. This article finds it worthwhile to examine the outcomes of these military operations in Niger delta crisis over security sectors in Nigeria and finds them to be terrifically counterproductive. The result unveils the impracticality of military armed forces becoming instrumental in addressing economic and environmental insecurities of a state as well as the need to expand the agenda of security beyond the military armed forces. Theoretically, this article uses the Copenhagen School of Security Studies’ (CS) conceptualization of security sectors as conceptual and structural framework of the study.


2022 ◽  
pp. 0095327X2110665
Author(s):  
Ayfer Genç Yılmaz

The civil-military relations literature on Turkey focuses predominantly on the guardianship role of the Turkish military, its interventions, and the role of the National Security Council as the main institutional mechanism of military tutelage. Yet, the existing studies lack a much-needed focus on the law enforcement or policing missions of the Turkish military. To fill this gap, this study discusses the EMASYA Protocol ( Emniyet Asayiş Yardımlaşma or Security and Public Order Assistance), a secret protocol signed in 1997. Emerging in the context of political instability and military tutelage of the 1990s, the Protocol enabled the military to conduct internal security operations without permission from the civilian authorities. This paper argues that the EMASYA Protocol provided a sphere of “reformulated new professionalism” for the Turkish military, enabled it to specialize in the war against rising internal threats such as reactionary Islam and Kurdish separatism, and created anomalies in civil-military relations in Turkey.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 137-142
Author(s):  
ALEXEY ROMAKHIN ◽  

This article reveals the problem of the role of the religious factor in the formation of the value orientations of the military personnel of the Russian army from its inception to the present state. In the article, the author reveals the significance of the Church in the formation of the value orientations of military personnel. The problem of religious situation in foreign armies is considered. The article presents data from sociological studies confirming the increase in the number of religious servicemen in the modern Armed Forces. The concept of “religious factor” is revealed. The author suggests considering the influence of the religious factor on the formation of value orientations through the functions of religion. The article provides examples of the influence of religion on the formation of value orientations of military personnel from the time of the Baptism of Russia to the present. Examples of writers of Russian classical literature about the influence of religion on the morale of troops are given. Examples of religious participation in major battles and wars of the past years are shown. The significance of the religious factor in uniting the people and the army is shown. The work of officials of the Ministry of defense of the Russian Federation in strengthening values among military personnel in modern conditions is demonstrated. The role of the Minister of defense of the Russian Federation, General of the army S.K. Shoigu in strengthening the faith of the Russian army is outlined. Issues related to the construction of the Main Temple of the Armed Forces and its impact on the public masses were discussed. In this study, the author aims to show the significant role of religion in the formation of value orientations in Russian military personnel. The analysis shows an increasing role of religion in the minds of military personnel in modern conditions.


2020 ◽  
pp. 193229682097640
Author(s):  
Michelle Dugas ◽  
Weiguang Wang ◽  
Kenyon Crowley ◽  
Anand K. Iyer ◽  
Malinda Peeples ◽  
...  

Background: Digital health solutions targeting diabetes self-care are popular and promising, but important questions remain about how these tools can most effectively help patients. Consistent with evidence of the salutary effects of note-taking in education, features that enable annotation of structured data entry might enhance the meaningfulness of the interaction, thereby promoting persistent use and benefits of a digital health solution. Method: To examine the potential benefits of note-taking, we explored how patients with type 2 diabetes used annotation features of a digital health solution and assessed the relationship between annotation and persistence in engagement as well as improvements in glycated hemoglobin (A1C). Secondary data from 3142 users of the BlueStar digital health solution collected between December 2013 and June 2017 were analyzed, with a subgroup of 372 reporting A1C lab values. Results: About a third of patients recorded annotations while using the platform. Annotation themes largely reflected self-management behaviors (diet, physical activity, medication adherence) and well-being (mood, health status). Early use of contextual annotations was associated with greater engagement over time and with greater improvements in A1C. Conclusions: Our research provides preliminary evidence of the benefits of annotation features in a digital health solution. Future research is needed to assess the causal impact of note-taking and the moderating role of thematic content reflected in notes.


2020 ◽  
pp. 123-153
Author(s):  
Muhammad Maigari Abdullahi ◽  
Usman Ahmad Karofi ◽  
Uthman Abdullahi Abdul-Quadir ◽  
Ibrahim Arafat

This article identifies different operational codenames adopted by the Nigerian military in special domestic operations from 1966-2019 and examined whether the operations were executed in line with the codenames. In Nigeria, the military has an established tradition of codenaming special operations, in both internal and foreign missions. Since 1966, the Nigerian military has been involved in internal security management and codenamed all the operations using both English and local language names. The aftermath of the first military coup d'état on 15th January 1966, was the beginning of military involvement in domestic security operations in addition to their constitutional responsibility of defending the territorial integrity of the country. The Effect Perspective (TEP) is adopted as the theoretical framework which gives proper nuance to the study. Methodologically, data were elicited through in-depth interviews. The findings explain why several military operations have failed to achieve the objectives of their codenames. It concludes that there is no correlation between the operational codenames and their outcomes of special military operations in Nigeria because the desired results of restoring peace have not been achieved within the specific time frame given when they were launched. The paper concludes that the majority of special military operations launched in Nigeria failed below expectations and unable to restore peace in their country in line with the operational codenames as a result of factors identified in the study.


Author(s):  
Marco Bünte

Myanmar has had one of the longest ruling military regimes in the world. Ruling directly or indirectly for more than five decades, Myanmar’s armed forces have been able to permeate the country’s main political institutions, its economy, and its society. Myanmar is a highly revealing case study for examining the trajectory of civil–military relations over the past seven decades. Myanmar ended direct military rule only in 2011 after the military had become the most powerful institution in society, weakened the political party opposition severely, coopted several ethnic armed groups, and built up a business empire that allowed it to remain financially independent. The new tutelary regime—established in 2011 after proclaiming a roadmap to “discipline flourishing democracy” in 2003, promulgating a new constitution in 2008, and holding (heavily scripted) elections in 2010—allowed a degree of power-sharing between elected civilian politicians and the military for a decade. Although policymaking in economic, financial, and social arenas was transferred to the elected government, the military remained in firm control of external and internal security and continued to be completely autonomous in the management of its own affairs. As a veto power, the military was also able to protect its prerogatives from a position of strength. Despite this dominant position in the government, civil–military relations were hostile and led to a coup in February 2021. The military felt increasingly threatened and humiliated as civilians destroyed the guardrails it had put in place to protect its core interests within the tutelary regime. The military also felt increasingly alienated as the party the military had established repeatedly failed to perform in the elections.


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