scholarly journals Poor PLS of Security Sector Reform and Its Impacts on Human Rights and Civil-Military Relations in Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Poltak Partogi Nainggolan ◽  
Riris Katharina
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Democratic Consolidation ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Security Sector Reform ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Formidable Challenge ◽  
Democratic Election ◽  
The One ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
Operations Other Than War

As emerging democracy, Indonesia is facing a formidable challenge from its Parliament whose capacity in conducting Post-Legislative Scrutiny is weak; this could prevent the country from fulfilling democratic consolidation. The country’s failure in fulfilling its democratic consolidation two decades after Soeharto’s resignation can bring it back to the authoritarian era as it has experienced only two years after the first 1955 democratic election until 1998. Applying an empirical research by directly observing PLS in the Indonesian parliament and using a qualitative method of analysis, this essay discussed the causes and repercussions of the parliament’s poor capability, which have brought the country into current setback, facing resistances from the old establishment that has made the military unable to continue reform and to change its political culture. Therefore, the Indonesian military still wants to involve in civilian affairs and businesses by making a more flexible interpretation of Military Operations Other Than War, on the one side. While, on the other, TNI’s existing culture of violence has led it to many alleged cases of gross human rights violations which could not be prosecuted until recently. In fact, Indonesian Members of Parliament’s poor capability and DPR’s weak supporting system give more complexity to the country in its struggle and success to be the third biggest democracy in the world.

Retirement Day

2019 ◽  
pp. 291-303
Author(s):  
Andrew Marble
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Partnership For Peace ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
Operations Other Than War ◽  
Historic Change ◽  
The Military

The chapter is set at Fort Myer, Virginia, on September 30, 1997, the day General John Shalikashvili retired from the US military. The chapter overviews the retirement ceremony from Shalikashvili’s perspective as he reviews the honor guard with President William J. Clinton and Secretary of Defense William Cohen and thinks back to that night when he first laid eyes on US soldiers in Pappenheim and the role that luck has played in his attaining the American dream. The chapter also thumbnails his accomplishments as chairman: (1) confronting historic change, especially by realizing Partnership for Peace and NATO expansion, (2) was more supportive of non-traditional military missions (military operations other than war, MOOTW), (3) prepared the US military for the challenges of the twenty-first century, particularly by downsizing the military yet upgrading their capability and readiness, including by emphasizing joint education, joint planning, and joint training, and (4) rebalanced civil-military relations. The chapter ends with Shalikashvili’s closing remarks, emphasizing his love for soldiers and their families.

Role Model or Role Expansion? Popular Perceptions of the Military in Tunisia

2021 ◽  
pp. 106591292110014
Author(s):  
Holger Albrecht ◽  
Michael Bufano ◽  
Kevin Koehler
Keyword(s):  
Role Model ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Democratic Consolidation ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Emerging Democracies ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Role Expansion ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military

This article introduces a theory on military role expansion in emerging democracies and poses a broad question: who wants the military to adopt which role in society and politics? Drawing on an original, nationally representative survey conducted in Tunisia, the article explores people’s preferences for the military to remain a security provider or serve in government and contribute to policing protests. Findings reveal that public support for military role expansion is substantial and varies across political cleavages. We test hypotheses to account for cleavages driven by the country’s authoritarian past versus partisan divides during Tunisia’s transition to democracy. Findings indicate that popular support for military role expansion is driven by anti-system sentiments prevalent in contemporary Tunisian politics: while voters prefer the military as a role model for security provision, non-voters support its enhanced role in politics. These observations have ample implications for the research programs on civil–military relations and the dynamics of democratic consolidation. Tunisia’s experience warrants greater attention to anti-system attitudes caused by people’s disillusionment with democratic procedures. In turn, authoritarian legacies do not appear to play a prominent role during such challenging transitions toward democratic consolidation.

Civil–Military Relations and Human Rights

2021 ◽  
pp. 0095327X2110068
Author(s):  
Sam R. Bell ◽  
K. Chad Clay ◽  
Ghashia Kiyani ◽  
Amanda Murdie
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Military Leadership ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Principal Agent Theory ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
Agent Theory ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Lack Of Control ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military

Do civil–military relations influence human rights practices? Building on principal–agent theory, we argue that civilian–military relations, instead of having an effect on mean levels of repression, will be associated with the dispersion in human rights practices. States where there is less control of the military or more conflict between civilian and military leadership will see a wider range of human rights practices. We test our hypotheses quantitatively on a global sample of countries, using updated data on civil–military relations and find evidence that civil–military conflict and lack of control increase the variance in human right practices.

To ‘midwife’ – and abort – a democracy: Mauritania's transition from military rule, 2005–2008

2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boubacar N'Diaye
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political System ◽  
Third Republic ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Electoral Outcomes ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military

ABSTRACTThe 3 August 2005 military coup was Mauritania's best opportunity to turn the page on decades of the deposed quasi-military regime's destructive politics. This article critically analyses relevant aspects of the transition that ensued in the context of the prevailing models of military withdrawal from politics in Africa. It also examines the challenges that Mauritania's short-lived Third Republic faced. It argues that the transition process did not escape the well-known African military junta leader's proclivity to manipulate transitions to fulfil suddenly awakened self-seeking political ambitions, in violation of solemn promises. While there was no old-fashioned ballot stuffing to decide electoral outcomes, Mauritania's junta leader and his lieutenants spared no effort to keep the military very much involved in politics, and to perpetuate a strong sense of entitlement to political power. Originally designed as an ingenious ‘delayed self-succession’ of sorts, in the end, another coup aborted Mauritania's democratisation process and threw its institutions in a tailspin. This only exacerbated the challenges that have saddled Mauritania's political system and society for decades – unhealthy civil-military relations, a dismal ‘human rights deficit’, terrorism, and a neo-patrimonial, disastrously mismanaged economy.

Rwanda: Civil–Military Relations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Jowell
Keyword(s):  
Central Africa ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
National Defense ◽  
Mass Violence ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Practical Experiences ◽  
The One ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military

The army has been a central part of Rwanda’s political system from the precolonial period until the early 21st century and is intrinsically part of the construction and politics of the state. Civil–military relations in Rwanda demonstrate not only the central features of transitioning a rebel group to a national defense sector but also how some states construct their armed forces after a period of mass violence. Since the civil war and genocide in the early 1990s, the Rwandan military has been the primary actor in politics, the economy, and state building as well as in regional wars in central Africa and the Great Lakes region. Practical experiences of guerrilla insurgency and conflict in Uganda and Rwanda, postconflict military integration, and the intertwining of political and economic agendas with the ruling party have shaped civil–military relations in Rwanda and have been central to how the Rwandan defense sector functions. Contemporary Rwandan civil–military relations center around the two elements of service delivery and control, which has resulted in the development of an effective and technocratic military in terms of remit and responsibilities on the one hand, and the creation of a politicized force of coercion on the other hand. The military in Rwanda therefore reflects the pressures and dynamics of the wider state and cannot be separated from it. The Rwandan army is thus a “political army” and is part and parcel of the political structures that oversee and govern the Rwandan state.

Who Has “Skin in the Game”?

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-114
Author(s):  
Jessica D. Blankshain
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Political Costs ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Reserve Component ◽  
Military Relations

This chapter examines how the changing role of the reserve component in the post–Cold War era has affected US civil-military relations. It argues that as the reserve component has transitioned from strategic to operational reserve, the part-time service members of the reserve component have become less distinct from their active-duty counterparts. The blurring of the distinction between citizen-soldier and professional soldier has important implications for key issues in civil-military relations. Policymakers previously assumed the societal disruption caused by mobilizing the reserve component would impose significant political costs on presidents who conduct overseas military operations, but this does not appear to be the case today. In addition, political activity—including serving in Congress—by members of the reserve component who simultaneously publicize their ongoing military service may exacerbate concerns about the politicization of the military.

Between Mars and Mammon; the East India Company and Efforts to Reform its Army, 1796–1832

1990 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 385-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas M. Peers
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
East India Company ◽  
British India ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
Anglo Indian

The history of the East India Company's rule of India is marked by sporadic outbursts of civil-military conflict. It was not unknown in India for European officers to down tools and commit acts that bordered on outright mutiny. Perhaps this could be expected when, on the one hand, the Company, as a commercial body, sought to maximize its profits, while on the other, the army was essentially a mercenary force, ever grasping for a larger slice of the fiscal pie. If, however, we penetrate deeper into the labyrinth of their relations, we find that the issues at stake lose their simplicity. In the early nineteenth century, a third group came into play, further confusing the state of civil-military relations in India. The Anglo-Indian bureaucracy, which had incorporated military attitudes into the operating system of British India, had begun to assert itself. Through such spokesmen as Thomas Munro, John Malcolm, Charles Metcalfe and Mountstuart Elphinstone, an increasingly militarized rule of British India was put forward, angering the court of directors and allowing the officers to mask their private interest under the guise of the national interest. This ideology of militarism, however, must be firmly placed within the context of nineteenth-century British India for it bore little resemblance to those strains of militarism witnessed elsewhere.

Plus Ça Change? The Dynamics of Security Sector Reform in Zimbabwe, 2009–2013

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Noyes
Keyword(s):  
Political Influence ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Security Sector Reform ◽  
National Union ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
Sector Reform ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
Opposition Parties

This chapter discusses the elements that influenced and constrained Security Sector Reform (SSR) in Zimbabwe during the country’s 2009 to 2013 power-sharing government period. The chapter argues that the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front’s (ZANU-PF) historically rooted symbiotic links with the security sector and the regional solidarity politics of ZANU-PF’s ruling fellow African liberation struggle parties, greatly undermined SSR in Zimbabwe. Thabo Mbeki, of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), an ostensibly ‘neutral’ mediator between ZANU-PF and opposition parties in the power-sharing talks, negotiated an agreement that lacked precise detail on the nature of SSR and how its implementation would be enforced. Coupled with ZANU-PF’s obstruction of attempts to delink the party from the security sector, and opposition parties’ lack of expertise in SSR issues and diplomacy, SSR faltered. The chapter further argues that in the absence of SSR, ZANU-PF was able to use the security sector to out-manoeuvre opposition parties in the power-sharing government and win the 2013 elections decisively. The failure of SSR in the power-sharing phase has had powerful consequences for civil–military relations after 2013. The security sector’s influence on politics mounted, culminating in the military staging a coup against president Robert Mugabe in 2017, which heightened the military’s political influence.

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