CivilMilitary Relationships in Developing Countries

Contributions by Pita Ogaba Agbese, Yoram Evron, Mary Jo Halder, Mpho G. Molomo, Glen Segell, Dhirendra K. Vajpeyi Edited by Dhirendra K. Vajpeyi, Glen Segell

Hardback - £97.00

Publication date:

16 December 2013

Length of book:

222 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739182802

This book examines two sides of civil–military relations in developing countries. One is the place of civil-military relations within a state’s political and economic systems; the other is the role of the military on a state’s maintenance of peace and stability. The book thus proposes that the function of soldiers is not only to defend and deter, but also to develop. The chapters provide a comprehensive analysis of civil–military relationship with comparative cases on Botswana, China, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, and The Arab Spring Countries of the Middle East including Bahrain, Sudan, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and Libya. Each chapter analyzes the historical, cultural and political factors that shape the direction of the man on the white horse (military elite) and the politician. In doing so, this book reveals the potential impact of the nature of civil military relations on democratization, political and economic development, and on regional/international security.

Dhirendra Vajpeyi and Glen Segell discuss and critique the current models and literature on civil-military relations. The innovative framework and careful choice of case studies, presented in a jargon-free, accessible style, makes this book attractive to scholars and students of civil military relations and development studies, as well as policymakers.
This book deals directly with some of the most intractable civil–military relations of our time and does so with a very clear and helpful ‘debate’ format in which each expert chapter is followed by editors’ notes. Glen Segell’s typology of the possible political outcomes of the broad phenomenon now known as the ‘Arab Spring’ is both perceptive and very effective. He sheds important light upon the requisites of democracy in the twenty-first century and the political options that stem from particular patterns of civil-military relations. Dhirendra Vajpeyi’s analysis of the profoundly different systems in Pakistan and India sheds new light on those confusing conundra. Orlando Perez brings his extensive expertise to bear on the Central American countries, incorporating Alfred Stepan’s concept of ‘military prerogatives’ to enhance our understanding of civil–military relations, and hence democracy, in these complex cases. Additional chapters by an impressive list of authors on Central American, Chinese, Indonesian, Nigerian, and Botswanan civil–military relations reinforce the impression that this book is a major contribution to civil–military relations, and thus to the often overlooked prerequisites to democracy, the dominant, but by no means permanently assured, political pattern of our age.