Civilian Control of the Military: The Changing Security Environment

201 Pages·1999·14.527 MB·English

by  Michael C. Desch

Make peace! And what will you do with the generals?
WilJ they cultivate greens?
PAUL VICOMTE DE BARRAS, Member of French Directory
Nothing is so dangerous as an army in the midst of an unwarlike
nation; the excessive love of the whole community for quiet
continually puts the constitution at the mercy of the soldiery.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, Democracy in America

List of Figures and Tables 1x
Acknowledgments x1
Chapter 1
Introduction 1
Chapter 2
Civilian Control of the Military in Different
Threat Environments 8
Chapter 3
Losing Control? Civil-Military Relations in the United
States during and after the Cold War 22
Chapter 4
Controlling Chaos: Civilian Control of the Soviet and
Russian Militaries 3 9
Chapter 5
The Anger of the Legions: The Hindenburg-Ludendorff
Dictatorship, the Algerian Crisis, and Interwar Japan 67
Chapter 6
Twilight of the Generals? Domestic Security and
Civil-Military Relations in Southern Latin America 97
viii Contents
Chapter 7
What the Future Holds 114
Appendix
Major U.S. Civil-Military Conflicts, 1938-1997 135
Notes 141
Index 173
Figures and Tables
Figures
1. Measures of Civilian Control (the Dependent Variable) 6
2. Civilian Control of the Military as a Function of Location
and Intensity of Threats 14
3. Predictions of Structural Theory for Intervening Variables 16
4. Anticipated Range of Outcomes for Civilian Control of
the Military 16
5. Detailed Case Studies 20
6. The U.S. Threat Environment since 1941 24
7. Soviet and Russian Threat Environments 41
8. The German Threat Environment in World War I 69
9. The French Threat Environment during the Algerian Crisis 79
10. The Interwar Japanese Threat Environment 95
11. The Changing Argentine Security Environment 102
12. The Changing Brazilian Security Environment 105
13. The Changing Chilean Security Environment 108
14. Civilian Control of the Military as a Function of Location
and Intensity of Threats 116
15. Determinacy of Different Threat Environments 132