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Abstract
This article argues that the relative homogeneity of communist civil–military relations postcommunist Europe has been replaced by significant diversity. Those states that have joined NATO and the EU have consolidated democratic civilian control of their militaries, re-oriented their defence policies towards peacekeeping and intervention operations beyond their borders and are fashioning new military–society relationships. In contrast, in Russia, Ukraine and most of the other former Soviet republics the military has become part of the nexus of semi- or outright authoritarian presidential rule, while severe economic and social problems are resulting in a dramatic downgrading of the military's professional and operational competence and severely inhibiting the prospects for meaningful military reform. In the countries of the former Yugoslavia, civil–military reform is gathering pace, but continues to struggle with twin legacies of war and authoritarianism.
Notes
1. This special issue of European Security draws together conclusions and analysis from a research project on ‘The Transformation of Civil–military Relations in Comparative Context’ funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) ‘One Europe or Several?’ programme (award number L213 25 2009). Further studies from the project can be found in Andrew Cottey, Anthony Forster & Timothy Edmunds (eds), Democratic Control of the Military in Postcommunist Europe: Guarding the Guards (Houndmills: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2002), Anthony Forster, Timothy Edmunds & Andrew Cottey (eds), The Challenge of Military Reform in Postcommunist Europe: Building Professional Armed Forces, (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002) and Anthony Forster, Timothy Edmunds & Andrew Cottey (eds), Soldiers and Societies in Postcommunist Europe: Legitimacy and Change (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). The project website can be accessed at http://civil–military.dsd.kcl.ac.uk/
2. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia became the confederative State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in February 2003.
3. The classical works on this subject are Samuel P. Huntington, The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Practice of Civil–military Relations (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1957); Morris Janowitz, The Professional Soldier: A Social and Political Portrait (London: Collier-Macmillan, 1960); and Samuel E. Finer, The Man on Horseback: The Role of the Military in Politics (London and Dunmow: Pall Mall Press, 1962). For more recent contributions see Martin Edmonds, The Armed Services and Society (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1988); Larry Diamond & Marc F. Plattner (eds), Civil–military Relations and Democrac (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997) and Michael Desch, Civilian Control of the Military: The Changing Security Environment, (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999).
4. On communist civil–military relations see Roman Kolkowicz, The Soviet Military and the Communist Party (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1967); Dale R. Herspring & Ivan Volgyes (eds), Civil–military Relations in Communist Systems, (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1978); Timothy J. Colton, Commissars, Commanders and Civilian Authority: The Structure of Soviet Military Politics (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 1979).
5. Thomas S. Szayna, The Military in a Postcommunist Poland, N-2209-USDP (Stan Monica, CA: The RAND Corporation, 1991), p. 43.
6. We have developed this argument in Andrew Cottey, Timothy Edmunds & Anthony Forster, ‘The Second Generation Problematic: Rethinking Democracy and Civil–military Relations’, Armed Forces & Society, 29:1 (Fall 2002), pp. 31–56.
7. For further detailed analyses of these types of reforms, and the problems encountered in implementing them see Jeffrey Simon's recent works Hungary and NATO: Problems in Civil–military Relations (Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), Poland and NATO: A Study in Civil–military Relations (Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004) and NATO and the Czech and Slovak Republics: A Comparative Study in Civil–military Relations (Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004).
8. Christopher Donnelly, ‘Reshaping Armed Forces for the 21st Century’, NATO Think Piece, 10 August 2001, http://www.nato.int/docu/articles/2000/a000913a.htm (accessed 15 March 2005; Timothy Edmunds, ‘NATO's New Members’, Survival, 45: 3 (Autumn 2003).
9. Dale R. Herspring, ‘De-professionalising the Russian Armed Forces’, in Anthony Forster, Timothy Edmunds & Andrew Cottey (eds), The Challenge of Military Reform in Postcommunist Europe: Building Professional Armed Forces, (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), pp. 197–210.
10. Huntington, The Soldier and the State.
11. Anthony Forster, Timothy Edmunds & Andrew Cottey (eds), The Challenge of Military Reform in Postcommunist Europe: Building Professional Armed Forces, (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).
12. Charles Moskos, John Allen Williams & David R. Segal, The Postmodern Military: Armed Forces After the Cold War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
13. Desch, Civilian Control of the Military.
14. See for example, Robin Luckham, Democratic Strategies for Security in Transition and Conflict’, in Gavin Cawthra & Robin Luckham (eds), Governing Insecurity: Democratic Control of Military and Security Establishments in Transitional Democracies (London: Zed Books, 2003).
15. Mats Berdal & David Malone (eds), Greed and Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars (Ottawa: International Development Research Centre, 2000).