scholarly journals Pakistan: Civil-Military Relations in a Post-Colonial State

PCD Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Ejaz Husain
Keyword(s):  
Structural Dynamics ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Authority Structure ◽  
Government Documents ◽  
Colonial Authority ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military

This article has attempted to explain why the military has remained a powerful political institution/force in Pakistan. Its purpose was to test a hypothesis that posited that the colonial authority structure and the 1947 partition-oriented structural dynamics provided an important structural construct in explaining politics and the military in post-colonial Pakistan. To explain and analyse the problem, the study used books, journals, newspapers and government documents for quantitative/explanatory analysis. The analysis has focused on the military in the colonial authority structure in which the former, along with the civil bureaucracy and the landed-feudal class, formed an alliance to pursue politico-economic interests in British India. The article has also explained and analysed the partition-oriented structural dynamics in terms of territory (Kashmir) and population (Indian refugees). The findings proved that these 'structural dynamics' have affected politics and the military in Pakistan. The theoretical framework in terms of 'praetorian oligarchy' has been applied to structurally explain colonial politics ad well as politics and the military in Pakistan. The study treated Pakistan as a praetorian state which structurally inherited the pre-partition 'praetorian oligarchy'. This praetorian oligarchy constructed 'Hindu India' as the enemy to pursue politico-economic interests. The military, a part of praetorian oligarchy, emerged from this as a powerful political actor due to its coercive power. It has sought political power to pursue economic objectives independently.

Post-colonial state–military relations

2020 ◽  
pp. 409-421
Author(s):  
Musambayi Katumanga
Keyword(s):  
Mirror Image ◽  
The Political ◽  
Strategic Culture ◽  
Operational Environment ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Regime Stability ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military

This chapter looks at how the Kenya Defence Force (KDF) has been shaped by successive governments. The analysis underscores a reality of continuity amidst change; namely of a dual logic of the prioritization of loyalty to the regime in power, and an emphasis on the need to ensure regime stability and order. This engenders a mirror image of military culture that constraints the institution’s ability to address nation–state crises and other challenges in its operational environment. Assured of regime security, the ruling elite seek to consolidate control over the political economy instead of a broad strategic culture necessary for developing a viable inclusive state. The implication is that while the military can potentially help to foster security, democracy, and accountable governance, its potential for state-building remains unexploited. This is explored through the KDF’s domestic policing initiatives as well as through their involvement in the war with Somalia.

scholarly journals A kingdom with many internal facets: power, politics and instability in a post-colonial state. Ramifications for public stability

2021 ◽  
pp. 79-90
Author(s):  
Daniel N. Mlambo
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Political Instability ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Military Relations

Lesotho offers an exciting case study for the analysis of the interface between power, politics and instability. Since gaining its independence from Britain in 1966, Lesotho has over the last five decades been plagued by persistent political instability that has paved way for the breakdown of the rule of law, gross human rights violations, underdevelopment and insecurity where at times the security sector like the Lesotho Defence Force has taken over several key institutions in the country. Political instability in the tiny kingdom has been a daunting agenda for all concerned actors, including political parties, civil society, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and other continental stakeholders. While the security sector of any state is of importance, it becomes problematic if it becomes involved in a state’s political affairs. The repercussions of such trajectories of governance have been quite profound for democratic stability and security. Using a qualitative methodology, supplemented by secondary data, this article seeks to unearth Lesotho’s political instability, the role of its security forces and continental actors in its continuous internal governance crisis post the colonial era. The article rightfully shows that The power, possessed by both the military and police, has made them have a robust role in state affairs rather than institutions, mandated to safeguard Lesotho’s citizens. The legitimacy of the security sector underpins restructuring, transparent and accessible security sectors enhance healthy civil-military relations. Restructuring a state’s security and political dynamic reforms is not an easy task, it requires a state managerial and dedication prowess and assistance from different role players and therefore an ample amount of time and effort is invested in the coordination of this process.

Civil Military Relation and Stabilization in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Pakistan

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tughral Yamin
Keyword(s):  
Paper Briefly ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Stabilization Process ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Salient Points ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military ◽  
Tribal Areas

The importance of civil military relations assumes seminal importance in ensuring the success of all phases of a counter insurgency campaign. In the true tradition of the Clausewitzian dictum that war is the continuation of policy and vice versa; Pakistan Army has been employed as a matter of policy in counter insurgency operations in the erstwhile tribal areas. They have also been used in the stabilization operations to bring about normality in the insurgency ridden areas. In fact the employment of Pakistan Army in the stabilization process defies any previous example in any other country. In all phases of the conflict cycle, the military has worked hand in glove with its civilian counterparts. The civil-military coordination (CIMIC) in the insurgency ridden areas has taken place within the framework of the established ground rules of an organized counter insurgency campaign. It would not be unfair to say that the return to normality in the erstwhile FATA has only been possible because of a well-knit CIMIC architecture. This paper briefly explicates the salient points of the CIMIC aspect of the counter and post-insurgency part of the operations in the conflict zones and highlights the importance of this aspect of dealing with insurgencies.

scholarly journals Introduction to the Armed Forces & Society Forum on Military Reserves in the “New Wars”

2021 ◽  
pp. 0095327X2199622
Author(s):  
Sergio Catignani ◽  
Nir Gazit ◽  
Eyal Ben-Ari
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Models ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
New Wars ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military ◽  
Critical Perspectives

This Armed Forces & Society forum is dedicated to exploring recent trends in the characteristics of military reserves and of the changing character of reserve forces within the armed forces within the military, the civilian sphere, and in between them. To bring new and critical perspectives to the study of reserve forces and civil–military relations, this introduction and the five articles that follow draw on two organizing conceptual models: The first portrays reservists as transmigrants and focuses on the plural membership of reservists in the military and in civilian society and the “travel” between them. The second model focuses on the multiple formal and informal compacts (contracts, agreements, or pacts) between reservists and the military.

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.

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

2021 ◽  
pp. 001041402198975
Author(s):  
Polina Beliakova
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Civilian Control ◽  
Intrastate Conflict ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Large N ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
Comprehensive Framework ◽  
The Military ◽  
New Framework

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.

The Right to Be Right: Civil-Military Relations and the Iraq Surge Decision

2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 87-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter D. Feaver
Keyword(s):  
Hybrid Approach ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Military Commanders ◽  
The Right ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military ◽  
President Bush ◽  
Primary Problem ◽  
Better Than

President George W. Bush's Iraq surge decision in late 2006 is an interesting case for civil-military relations theory, in particular, the debate between professional supremacists and civilian supremacists over how much to defer to the military on decisions during war. The professional supremacists argue that the primary problem for civil-military relations during war is ensuring the military an adequate voice and keeping civilians from micromanaging and mismanaging matters. Civilian supremacists, in contrast, argue that the primary problem is ensuring that well-informed civilian strategic guidance is authoritatively directing key decisions, even when the military disagrees with that direction. A close reading of the available evidence—both in published accounts and in new, not-for-attribution interviews with the key players—shows that the surge decision vindicates neither camp. If President Bush had followed the professional supremacists, there would have been no surge because his key military commanders were recommending against that option. If Bush had followed the civilian supremacists to the letter, however, there might have been a revolt of the generals, causing the domestic political props under the surge to collapse. Instead, Bush's hybrid approach worked better than either ideal type would have.

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.

Civil–Military Relations and Russia’s Post-Soviet Military Culture: A Belief System Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 0095327X2110629
Author(s):  
Kirill Shamiev
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Military Culture ◽  
Institutional Autonomy ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
The Government ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military

This article studies the role of military culture in defense policymaking. It focuses on Russia’s post-Soviet civil–military relations and military reform attempts. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia’s armed forces were in a state of despair. Despite having relative institutional autonomy, the military neither made itself more effective before minister Serdyukov nor tried to overthrow the government. The paper uses the advocacy coalition framework’s belief system approach to analyze data from military memoirs, parliamentary speeches, and 15 interviews. The research shows that the military’s support for institutional autonomy, combined with its elites’ self-serving bias, critically contributed to what I term an “imperfect equilibrium” in Russian civil–military relations: the military could not reform itself and fought back against radical, though necessary, changes imposed by civilian leadership.

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