Militarization And The International Arms Race In Latin America

Augusto Varas

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9780367155087
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429717703
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Military conflicts and dictatorships in Latin America are the main consequences of the increasingly autonomous role of the armed forces in the region, asserts noted scholar Augusto Varas, and international factors related to the expansion of weapon industries in the North and the increasing flow of financial resources to Latin America are accelerating the arms race. Varas discusses the historical function of the armed forces in local politics, the new ideology of the "national security doctrine," and the process of conflict perception by the Latin American military. He also analyzes the inevitable relations between the arms race and the political role of the region's armed institutions. Using Chile as an example, he places these factors in context and illustrates how political crisis can escalate into a regional arms race. He then concludes with a discussion of the links between prospects for democracy in the region and demilitarization and disarmament.

1. The Role of the Armed Forces in Latin American Societies

DOI: 10.4324/9780429035074-1

The political role performed by the Latin American armed forces in the twentieth century is constrained by their earlier identity and functions. The military has been historically important in the continent's struggles for independence—first from Spain's formal rule and then from its informal domination—and through this process, the military has been transformed into the guarantor of the economic liberty of national oligarchies.¹

HISTORICAL IMAGE OF THE MILITARY

The armed forces have played an unusual role in the ideology as well as the actual formation of many Latin American states. The development of military institutions and their increasing material resources have been identified in Latin American history with the appearance and consolidation of the state—the centralized administrative political body—and the nation—the unified social body.²

In the nineteenth century, an image of the military as the protagonist in the formation of nations was created. The position of the nation during the formative colonial period, and later the attainment of independence and the consolidation of independent republics, were largely seen as the products of great military achievements. The official iconography of the Latin American state attributes the emergence, consolidation, and expansion of the nation to the use of arms, obscuring the context of larger global processes. This overvaluation of the military is expressed in the military establishment's image of itself as the nucleus of the nation and the skeleton of the state.

Although it ignores many other factors important to the creation of nations, this conception contains a degree of truth. In comparison with the formation of nations elsewhere in the world, the military has indeed played a disproportionately significant role in Latin America. In Europe, Japan, and the United States, the fundamental elements of national life and mythology are never military deeds or war heroes. In the French national consciousness, for example, Napoleon is not remembered as the father of the country; nor, for the German people, does the battle of Sedan merit the celebration and commemoration that Chacabuco and Ayacucho do in Latin America. The accomplishments of armies and their leaders are relatively incidental in the historical development of these European nations. The national destinies of Japan and the United States have been forged, on more than one occasion, by the use of military force, but the root of their national identity lies rather in civilian life, which through its momentum and vitality subsumes the conflicts of war. Civilian life has a richness not to be found in the military, regardless of its importance in national life. The national cohesion of the United States and the European nations rests upon the solidity and stability of civil society, the strength of a productive economy, and a clearly defined political identity shared by all social classes.

In contrast, the countries of Latin America attained independence without a legitimized class structure and lacking a rich civilian and intellectual life—almost as cardboard reconstructions of a distant Bourbon administration. They relied upon caudillos—military strongmen—to discipline the unintegrated local bourgeoisie, who lacked the political maturity to initiate autonomous natio...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Table of Contents Page
• List of Tables Page
• Preface Page
• Introduction
• 1 The Role of the Armed Forces in Latin American Societies
• 2 A Corporatist Ideology for the Latin American Military: The National Security Doctrine
• 3 The Militarization of Latin America
• 4 The Arms Race in Latin America
• 5 The Transfer of Military Technology from Developed Countries
• 6 Perceptions of Security and Conflict and the Arms Race
• 7 Military Conflicts and Regional Peace Agreements
• 8 The Armed Forces and the Military Regime in Chile
• 9 Demilitarization, Disarmament, and Democracy
• List of Acronyms
• Selected Bibliography
• Titles in This Series
• About the Book and Author
• Index