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Whether military regimes will be more generous than civilian regimes in supporting the military.

Since late 2010, an unprecedented wave of protests demanding greater political freedoms, and in several countries even regime change, has swept across much of the Arab world. In Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, long-standing autocrats have been toppled, and in other countries of the region seemingly well-established authoritarian regimes also appeared increasingly shaky in the face of growing opposition movements. The aim of this article is to examine the role of the armed forces in these popular uprisings. While military forces have been key actors in these Arab uprisings, they have responded quite differently across the region to prodemocracy movements, ranging from openness to protest movements, to internal fracturing, to firm support for the regime in power. This article argues that these differences can be explained with reference to different forms of civil-military relations and different characteristics of the military apparatus. It claims in particular that the degree of institutionalization of the armed forces and their relationship to society at large can account for the divergent responses to pro-reform movements. [Reprinted by permission; copyright Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society/Sage Publications Inc.]

Examines decisions made by the Russian officer corps during the 1993 coup and prospects for future military intervention in politics.

Causes for the failure to support the Aug. 1991 coup on the part of the Soviet armed forces.

Scholars have devoted considerable effort to exploring the possible connection between regime type and patterns of military spending in Latin America. This research has failed to demonstrate a significant relationship between them, in part because identifying regimes by whether they are civilian or military is not a useful way to measure military influence over decisions about budgetary allocations. This article rejects the use of regime type as an independent variable. Instead, a general definition of regime is proposed, and a number of Latin American regimes are categorized in terms of dominant patterns of civil-military relations. Statistical analysis of military budget shares between 1967 and 1980 for 26 regimes suggests that regimes are a useful unit of analysis and that patterns of civil-military relations can shed some light in accounting for trends in military spending. The data and analysis are used to pose a number of hypotheses about how explicitly political variables influence decisions over public spending for military and nonmilitary purposes.

This book examines the ways in which European democracies, including former communist states, are dealing with the new demands placed on their security policies since the cold war by transforming their military structures, and the effects this is having on the conceptualisation of soldiering. In the new security environment, democratic states have called upon their armed forces increasingly to fulfil unconventional tasks – partly civilian, partly humanitarian, and partly military – in most complex, multi-national missions. Not only have military structures been transformed to make them fit for these new types of deployments, but the new mission types highlight the necessity for democracies to come to terms with a new image and ethos of soldiering in defence of a transnational value community. Combining a qualitative comparison of twelve countries with an interdisciplinary methodology, this edited volume argues that the ongoing transformations of international politics make it necessary for democracies to address both internal and external factors as they shape their own civil-military relations. The issues discussed in this work are informed by Democratic Peace theory, which makes it possible to investigate relations within the state at the same time as analysing the international dimension. This approach gives the book a systematic theoretical framework which distinguishes it from the majority of existing literature on this subject. This book will be of much interest to students of civil-military relations, European politics, democratisation and post-communist transitions, and IR in general.

Abstract:
Recent years have seen a transformation in Turkish civil-military relations—away from the traditional picture of weak elected officials overseen by a strong military, to one of a strengthened civilian government and a military with decreased influence. This article explores the questions of how this transformation has occurred, whether it will last, and what it indicates about prospects for democratic consolidation in Turkey. It includes suggestions for ensuring the institutionalization of these changes, and discusses possible stumbling blocks to further advancement.

This study examines how defense institutions and personnel are formally organized in Latin America. In a region long plagued by praetorian armies, it is especially important that organizational designs ensure that civilians maintain institutional control over armed forces. For this to occur, it is argued that those designs must incorporate certain principles: (a) enhance the civilian presence in key defense institutions, (b) empower defense ministries, (c) lower the military's vertical authority along the chain of command, and (d) unify civilian power while dividing military power. Based on an examination of legal documents and other data for sixteen Latin American democracies, findings show three general organizational patterns: an ideal—typical defense structure that achieves all four objectives, a second best defense structure that still leaves too much military power unified, and a dual command structure that is least desirable for weakening the defense ministry while coalescing military might high up the ladder of influence.

"This book examines the ways in which European democracies, including former communist states, are dealing with the new demands placed on their security policies since the cold war by transforming their military structures, and the effects this is having on the conceptualisation of soldiering"--Provided by publisher.