An overview of civil‐military relations in central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

Encouraging civil‐military reform is an important component of Western countries’ outreach programmes to Central and Eastern Europe. This article examines the progress so far achieved by organizing the analysis under six general categories: civilian minister of defence; civilian officials in defence ministries; political non‐involvement of the military; legislative supervision of defence policy; publicly known budgets and defence policies, and public discussion of defence issues. By surveying developments throughout the region, the article concludes that considerable reform has already been undertaken, though the achievements vary according to the country. As civil‐military relations are an ongoing political process, much remains to be done to bring the countries of the region up to generally‐recognized Western standards.