Overview of the Book
The nexus between the military and citizens, often referred to as civilâmilitary relations, cannot be reduced into a simplistic dichotomy as usually depicted, but consists of a syncretic and complex set of interactions and synergies which take different forms (including contradiction, accommodation and synthesis), as this book attempts to demonstrate in a globally comparative way. The ever-changing new security environment has transformed and reset this relationship in a way which responds to the specific realities in different countries. The book, which consists of 4 parts and 20 chapters, is an attempt to bring together diverse experiences of different countries in a single volume to show how the relationship between the military and citizens cannot be understood purely in terms of a single metanarrative; such understanding requires the use of a range of interdisciplinary analytical tools in different political, socio-cultural, economic and historical contexts.
The title of the book, Guns and Roses, was chosen because it represents the civilâmilitary relationship in a symbolic way and provides a social metaphor to enable us to grasp some ironies about the co-existence of contesting concepts such as war and peace, people and the military, hard security and human security and conflict and stability. Metaphorically, while guns have bullets, they also have trigger locks, which make guns, and by analogy, militaries, subdued in time of peace. In a similarly symbolic way, a rose may represent a burgeoning civil society and at the same time become a thorn to state authority and the military.
The chapters are drawn from the papers submitted to a conference on democratization and the military organized by the International Political Science Association (IPSA) research committee on democratization and the role of the military (now changed to conflict, security and democratization), hosted by the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, in June 2017, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Department of Political Affairs and Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies at Massey University, New Zealand. The funding for the conference and the book was provided by the University of Canterbury and the Royal Society of New Zealandâs Marsden research fund.
The volume has been slightly refocused to emphasize the issue of civilâmilitary relations in the context of the new security environment. The term âsecurity environmentâ here refers loosely to the local, national, regional and global contexts of threat, anxiety and tension and how they impact on social stability and development. With the onset of globalization, these levels of security are inter-related in ways which see oscillation between the local and global in a dynamic way. Global security has been shaped by a number of salient factors including the resurgence of non-state militant forces, cyber security, drone warfare, highly digitized weaponry, rising inequality, the rise of right-wing politics, resistance against the predatory nature of neoliberal capitalism, contestation over scarce resources and, recently, the rise of Trump and his unorthodox and high-risk governance style, to name a few. In this climate of uncertainty, the nexus between the military and citizenry has increasingly become complex and problematic because of the blurring line of demarcation between the civil habitat, where ordinary citizens exist, and the military as a coercive arm of the state. The military itself has slowly morphed into the civilian sphere through the embracement of human security and privatization of many of its functions, while at the same time we have seen the rise of civilian militancy through protests and to the extreme, terrorism. Even the conventional configuration of the state has been contested and threatened as a result of the rise of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, commonly known as ISIS, and other anti-state forces.
In this spectacularly shifting atmosphere, the synergy between the military and citizens needs to be fully examined because of the way it transforms and is transformed by the security environment locally, nationally, regionally and internationally. In recent times, the encounter between the military and citizenry has been manifested in multifarious forms in such situations as the invasion of Iraq, the Arab spring, the war against ISIS, the nuclear standoff with North Korea, intra-state wars, protests for greater democratization, coups and attempted coups, the fight against increased terrorism and President Trumpâs militarization policy and United Nations peacekeeping operations, to name a few. Many of these events occurred in the global South countries in Asia, Pacific, Africa, Middle East and Latin America, where most of the case studies in the book are from.
In relation to this, changes in the role of the military in the global South are worth noting here. The popularization of the human security discourse has shifted the emphasis away from the âhardâ security narrative to a more society-based approach. One way in which this is manifested is the âcivilianizationâ of the military, a process where military officers are embedded in civilian sectors of state operations. The flipside to this, as in the case of Zimbabwe and Fiji, is how it leads to the militarization of the state bureaucracy and society generally through co-option of military personnel into civilian institutions. In some cases, such as the Philippines, the military has changed strategy from direct deployment of coercion to the use of peace building as a way of creating a democratic space for citizen participation in conflict areas. In some cases, the military has been directly involved in economic development and entrepreneurial activities as a corporate institution as the case of Indonesia shows. In an age of instant image making and mass propaganda through social media, the military plays a vital diplomatic role for states as a promoter of democracy and peace through post-disaster humanitarian aid and peacekeeping operations. While these roles provide a more humane imagery of militaries, they, however, raise anxiety about their hidden and latent agendas and the implications of these on democracy and citizen well-being as militaries shift from being autonomous praetorian institutions to social organizations integrated into civilian life.
In tandem with these processes are some new developments, which may change the military dynamics once more. For instance, the continuing war on terror, the inclusion of senior military officers in Trumpâs cabinet, the colossal increase in the proposed US military budget, the missile attack on Syria and the latest Cold War-type nuclear posturing with North Korea have raised further anxiety about a new era of overt global violence, which will see the major military powers reverting to their old gunboat diplomacy and direct confrontational stance. As in the Cold War, global South states may find themselves as a playground for contestation over global power once more.
Understanding the changing and complex role of the military in the global South in all these situations is of critical importance, more so because of the different ways in which different countries and regions are affected given their unique historical, political, cultural, social and economic circumstances. The global interconnectedness of countries also means that what happens in one part of the world has ramifications in another. For this reason, a global comparative study is needed to explore and unearth some deeper and critical synergies between citizenry and the military.
The book does not pretend to be all encompassing but attempts to capture selected aspects of these complex contemporary developments, focusing particularly on the nexus between the citizens and the military in Asia, Pacific, Africa, Middle East and South America. Many countries in these regions are going through exciting challenges in relation to political governance, ethnic conflict, socio-economic development and other forms of disputes, and the military has positioned itself strategically in relation to these issues. The democratization project in some of these countries has been deemed âsuccessfulâ, while some have been going through cycles of crisis. There is no âone-size-fits-allâ model of democracy as there are diverse configurations which reflect the historical circumstances of each country. Likewise, the nature and role of the military differ considerably, despite some shared similarities. In some countries, the military sees itself as a watchdog and vanguard of democratization and paradoxically may intervene to remove an elected government if it is deemed to be âauthoritarianâ or âcorruptâ. In some countries, the military claim to play a politically âimpartialâ role and attempt to ensure political disengagement, no matter what the political circumstances might be. In some cases, the military sees itself as protector of the status quo, whether it be democratic or oppressive. In some cases, the interest of the military oscillates between these positions, depending on the circumstances. The power of political leveraging and the repressive capacity of the military are influenced by the changing conditions and differ from country to country.
The issues above provide the background to this volume. The book is a critical examination of these issues, linking together both theoretical discourse and empirical studies by some international experts in the field. This is done by different scholars with expertise on different countries through comparative case studies and the use of diverse analytical tools. The diverse narratives revolve around four major thematic foci. The first theme focuses on the sometimes engaging and sometimes oppositional relationship between the military and citizenry. The second theme deals with the way the military leverages itself to affect political change and some of the reasons for doing so, while the third theme examines the process of intervention in conflict situations to bring about peace. The fourth theme focuses on gender, civil society and sovereignty. Because these four themes are inter-related and certainly overlap in various ways, they must be seen not in isolation but as part of interconnected narratives using nuanced lenses. Rather than squeezing them to fit tightly into a predetermined mechanical comparative template, the case studies are meant to provide unique and autonomous voices of their own. Different countries have unique historical, socio-political and cultural realities and these are reflected in the diverse narratives. The different narratives reflect the changing dynamics of how security is manifested differently in different circumstances and time.
Structure of the Book
Part 1: Contestation or Cooperation: Dilemmas of CivilâMilitary Engagement
This part of the book looks at the issue of contestation and cooperation between the military and civilian society and focuses on a number of studies from Egypt, France, Bangladesh, South Africa and Fiji. Chapter 2 by Steven Ratuva provides a broad overview and examines the multi-faceted dilemmas associated with the changing dynamics of civilâmilitary relations in a global environment. The chapter critiques Huntingtonâs view that there are standard institutional, professional and normative vales and behaviours which are shared universally by militaries and argues that as social institutions, militaries respond readily to and are shaped by the socio-cultural, economic, security and political habitus around them. In this way, the relationship between the military and society is often political and ideological but framed under the euphemism of professionalism. The chapter is more of a brief overview than a comprehensive analysis and provides comparative international examples to set the tone of the book in perspective.
The case study in Chap. 3 by Paul Carnegie examines the strategic responses and political intent of the Egyptian armed forces during the countryâs âArab springâ, an event which raised high expectations of progressive political transformation. Yet, as the chapter warns, it may have been better to exercise caution about Egyptâs post-uprising direction because, as we have witnessed, the result was no better than the situation at the beginning of the crisis. It argues that the rise of an autocratic military regime following the Egyptian âArab springâ, while disappointing to many with high expectations, was not wholly unexpected. The post-Mubarak political outcome is largely the product of a polity still snared in the capricious embrace of reactionary military forces and past legacies. The oscillation between tension and accommodation in relation to the relationship between the military and the civilian realm is manifested in a complex way in Egypt, as shown by Carnegie.
Chapter 4, by Miles Kitts, examines the distribution of domestic political power within France since the 1789 revolution and provides a vastly different scenario from the Egyptian âArab springâ as it focuses on a metropolitan military. It does this by embracing Peter Feaverâs agency theory of civilâmilitary relations, which posits that within contemporary liberal democratic states, the relationship between civilian and military leaderships is fluid. The chapter examines how civilâmilitary relations within changing political systems are influenced by the distribution of domestic political power in different state types, whether presidential, parliamentary or other systems. Since 1789 political power in France has fluctuated between autocratic and collective forms of decision-making. The chapter examines how since 1789 French civilian leaders have attempted to control the French military, with a focus on how the distribution of domestic political power influenced civilâmilitary relations. It argues that when there is a concentration of domestic political power the military is more likely to be compliant with the civilian leadership, but when that power is more diffused the military is less likely to be compliant. This is because when political power is more concentrated, the military has more confidence in the government, as well as limiting the scope through which the military can inject itself into politics. However, when political power is more diffused the military feels that it has the duty and the opening through which to inject itself into politics.
In Chap. 5, Mohd Aminul Karim provides a narrative of the confrontational nature of civilâmilitary relations in Bangladesh. Bangladeshi political culture is highly confrontational and this is reflective of deep political divisions within the society. These divisions have impacted on military professionalism and more broadly on institution building in the country. Political interference by the ruling political masters has led to institutional decay and mechanisms for accountability have been undermined. The chapter makes the argument that the Bangladeshi military is subject to âobjectiveâ and âsubjectiveâ controls by the executive and this may have an impact on civilâmilitary relations in the long run, thus impacting on professionalism and loyalty.
In a slightly different context, Jo-Ansie van Wyk examines the relationship between the political executive and the military in post-apartheid South Africa in Chap. 6. One of the ironies is that, as the chapter surmises, despite commitments to sound civilian oversight, the executive has used its political power to exert control over the military and the ruling partyâs military wing. In the context of this, the chapter intends to analyse executiveâmilitary relations in South Africa, the executiveâs use of the military for political and private use, the role of the ruling partyâs armed wing, accusations against the military of misconduct in border protection, rhino horn smuggling and misconduct during United Nations peacekeeping operations, and the state of the South African military. The chapter discusses these in the context of the ongoing democratization process in South Africa.
This theme of militaryâexecutive relationship is manifested in other post-colonial states like Fiji, as Vijay Naidu discusses in the case of Fiji in Chap. 7. The current government came to power on the back of a military coup in 2006. One of the features of Fijiâs political history is the constant intervention of the military in democratic politics in a way which has significantly transformed civicâmilitary relations. The chapter examines the impact of the coups on Fijiâs democracy, the militarizati...