The transformation of civil military relations in comparative context

This research focused on the changes in civil-military relations in central and eastern Europe following the fall of Communism from 1989 to 2002. States in this region face many of the same broad challenges of post-Communism, but are also characterised by great diversity in terms of size, geo-strategic situation, history, domestic politics, economics and their relations with the West. The aim of the research was to explore how the interaction of the common challenges of post-Communism and the diverse circumstances of individual countries shaped civil-military relations in central and eastern Europe. This comparative approach therefore addressed important gaps in the existing scholarly literature, both theoretical and empirical. Within the scholarly community, many civil-military debates have been dominated by North American models of civil-military relations, designed around very different socio-economic circumstances to those found in central and eastern Europe. In addition, the civil-military relations field has been dominated by models initially proposed in the context of the Cold War in the 1950s and 60s, with few new analytical frameworks being offered to understand and explain contemporary armed forces-society relations. This research attempted to address these weaknesses. In addition the research also wanted to offer research findings of relevance to policy-makers and practitioners engaged in a post 1989 process of promoting democratic models of civil-military relations in the region.