Review article
LATIN AMERICAN AND EASTERN EUROPEAN TRANSITION: COMPARATIVE ANALYSES OF CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS
Stjepan Domjančić
orcid.org/0000-0001-5964-5004
; Hrvatsko vojno učilište „Petar Zrinski“ Ministarstva obrane Republike Hrvatske
Abstract
The paper explores Latin American post-militaristic and European post-communist transition in the context of civil-military relations. On the one hand, Latin American militarism and post-militaristic consolidation have been analyzed outside of the prevailing discourse according to which civil-military relations are, almost entirely, understood in the context of the struggle of civil politicians and soldiers for political supremacy. On the other hand, post-communist transition has been studied in a neglected field: civil-military relations. The key thesis of the author refers to strong and prevailing correlation between civil control (management) and expertise in the relevant field. Civilian control should not be understood in the context of preventing unwanted conduct of the military, but it should include the ability of the civilians to determine the goals and organization of defence, to define defence policy and monitor the implementation of that policy. Analysis of civil-military relations should be a part of broader discussions on democratization. This paper points out how, regardless of various initial positions, various international circumstances, and to some extent, different period, the civil-military relations in both transitional groups show similar features and equal degree of the lack of democracy in society. In both cases, there is an overestimation of outside (international) influences on democratization processes. The lack of democracy refers to the application of penetration model of the control of armed forces with the lack of civil defence expertise.
Keywords
Transition; civil-military relations; Latin America; East Europe; Croatia; post-militarism; post-communism
Hrčak ID:
92833
URI
Publication date:
29.6.2012.
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