The Military in Politics
GOV 390L, U#38515
Fall 2023/BAT 5.102/M 15:00-18:00
Instructor: Prof. Z. D. Barany
Office: BAT 3.156/Office hours: M: 13:30-15:00, 18-19:30
This course is designed to familiarize graduate students with the military’s role in modern state and society. The focus is on the sociopolitical character and potential economic role of the armed forces. We will examine the most important issues of civil-military relations, such as civilian control and the types of control arrangements that are conducive to healthy civil-military relations in various types of political regimes, how military politics may be democratized, why and how military dictatorships emerge and exit, the socioeconomic background of soldiers and officers, and in what ways do military elites respond to state policies and social movements. The geographical coverage is global and the reading list – aside from some texts that impart basic knowledge – will be heavily influenced by the composition of the class.
The class begins with nine weeks of intensive readings in order to get you grounded in the literature and help you learn to appreciate the diversity of civil-military relations in different political systems. You will write nine brief (one single-spaced page) discussion proposals to facilitate debate about the readings. These should contain two or three paragraph-long questions raised by the readings for the class that you will send to your classmates and me by midnight on Sunday (the previous day). We will conclude with student presentations (approximately 20-25-minute summations of your research project) followed by Q&A sessions. The topic of the seminar paper must be settled by October 2; a detailed, annotated outline of the paper is due in class two weeks later.
The research paper is the most important requirement of this course. It should be 20-25 double-spaced pages in length and should be informed by at least 25 different sources (books, articles, etc.). The paper should be structurally sound and the argument(s) should be built to follow logical reasoning. Ideally, it would take advantage of some existing theory to inform its argument(s); it should be analytical and feature relatively little descriptive material (i.e., ask not “how?” ask rather “why?”). The paper is due, in class, on December 4.
Grading
1. 9 discussion proposals (2% each) : 18%
2. seminar participation (including presentation of the research paper) : 32%
3. research paper (20-25 pages, double-spaced) : 50%
I will assume that as graduate students you will do the readings as assigned. I want you to immerse yourselves in the books in order to be able to make critical and insightful comments during the meetings. Since the seminar is based on discussion, without your substantive, engaged participation it will be of little use. Therefore, I request that you do not use a laptop or any other electronic device during seminars.
Readings (books to purchase*)
See under each class period. There are no books to purchase. I will send you PDFs of the books or you may find them through the UT Library’s website.
Schedule and topics of seminar meetings
August 21: A brief introduction to the course
Part I. General Concepts and Issues
I. August 28: Civil-military relations: The Field, Basic Concepts
Read: 1. David Pion-Berlin and Danijela Dudley, “Civil-Military Relations: What Is the
State of the Field? Handbook of Military Sciences, (2020): 1-22.
2. Barany, The Soldier and the Changing State, Chapter 1, 14-43
3. 3 chapters from Thomas C. Bruneau, Thomas C. and Scott D. Tollefson, eds.
Who Guards the Guardians and How (University of Texas Press, 2006)
1. Jeanne Kinney Giraldo on legislatures: 34-70;
2. Thomas C. Bruneau and Richard B. Goetze Jr. on ministries of defense
and democratic control 71-98;
3. Jeanne Kinney Giraldo on budgets: 178-207.
September 4: Labor Day holiday
II. September 11: Armies, Revolutions, Coups
Read: 1. Naunihal Singh, “The Myth of Coup Contagion,” Journal of Democracy, 33:4
(October 2022): 74-88.
2. Barany, How Armies Respond to Revolutions and Why, Intro and Chap. 1, 1-44.
3. Pion-Berlin, Esparza, and Grisham, “Staying Quartered: Civilian Uprisings and
Military Disobedience in the Twenty-First Century,” Comparative Political Studies, 47:2 (February 2014): 230-259.
4. Articles on recent Nigerien and West African coups and their implications from
The Economist and The New York Times (I will send PDFs)
III. September 18: Socio-political Issues: Ethnicity, Race, Gender
Read: 1. Cynthia Enloe, “The Military Uses of Ethnicity,” Millennium, 4:3 (1975): 220-
234.
2. Lundquist, Jennifer Hickes, “Ethnic and Gender Satisfaction in the Military:
The Effect of a Meritocratic Institution,” American Sociological Review,
73:3 (2008): 477-496.
3. Angela Grdina, “Women and Civil-Military Relations,” in Routledge
Handbook of Civil-Military Relations, 283-295.
4. Smith and Rosenstein, “Gender and the Military Profession,” Armed Forces &
Society, 43:2 (2017): 260-279.
5. Beth Bailey, “Race and the History of Modern US Military,” War & Society,
2023, 1-17
6. Beth Bailey, “The U.S. Army and ‘the Problem of Race’: Afros, Race
Consciousness, and Institutional Logic,” Journal of American History,
106:3 (December 2019): 639-661.
Part II. Case Studies
IV. September 25: Western Europe/Israel
Read: 1. Donald Abenheim, “The Soldier’s Tradition and Civil-Military Relations in
Germany,” in The Routledge Handbook of Civil-Military Relations (2021)
2. Aaron Edwards, “’ A Whipping Boy If Ever There Was One’? The British
Army and the Politics of Civil-Military Relations in Northern Ireland,
1969-79,” Contemporary British History, 28:2 (2014): 166-189.
3. Grégory Daho, “A Revenge of the Generals: The Rebalancing of the Civil-
military Relations in France,” Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding,
13:3 (2019): 304-322.
4. Onishi and Méheut, “In France’s Military, Muslims Find a Tolerance that is
Elusive Elsewhere,” New York Times, 26 June 2021.
5. Yoram Peri, “The Widening Military-political Gap in Israel,” SWP Comment,
No. 2, January 2020
6. Joseph Krauss, “Leading Human Rights Group Calls Israel an ‘Apartheid’
State,” AP News (Jerusalem), 21 January 2021.
7. “Ex-Israeli General Says Army Partner in West Bank War Crimes, Invokes
Nazi Germany, Haaretz, 13 August 2023.
V. October 2: The United States – Guest: General (Ret.) Vincent Brooks
Read: Three articles in Strategic Studies Quarterly, 15:2 (Summer 2021) –
https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/SSQ/ -- find full issues in the “Archives”
1. Peter Feaver and Richard Kohn, “Civil-Military Relations in the United
States: What Senior Leaders Need to Know (and Usually Don’t),” 12-37;
2. Kori Schake, “The Line Held: Civil-Military Relations in the Trump Administration,” 38-49;
3. Jim Golby, “Uncivil-Military Relations: Politicization of the Military in the Trump
Era,” 149-174.
4. David Pion-Berlin, Thomas Bruneau, and Richard Goetze, Jr, “The Trump
Self-Coup Attempts: Comparisons and Civil-Military Relations,”
Government & Opposition, 2022, 1-18
5. Mara Karlin and Alice Hunt Friend, “Military Worship Hurts American
Democracy”, September 24, 2018, Order from Chaos, Brookings
Institution
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/09/24/military-wor…
6. Melinda Wenner Moyer, “’A Poison in the System’: The Epidemic of Military
Sexual Assault,” New York Times Magazine, August 3, 2021.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/magazine/military-sexual-assault.html
7. David Phillips, “The Casualties at the Other End of the Remote-Controlled
Kill,” New York Times, 15 April 2022.
Research topic due!
VI. October 9: Russia and Eastern Europe
Read: 1. Kovalevskyi, “CMR in Putin’s Russia,” in The Routledge Handbook of Civil-
Military Relations (2021)
2. Shamiev, “Civil-Military Relations and Russia’s Post-Soviet Military Culture,”
Armed Forces and Society, 49:2
3. Götz and Staun, “Why Russia Attacked Ukraine,”
4. Barany, “Armies and Autocrats,” Journal of Democracy, (Jan 2023)
5. Barany, “What the West Still Gets Wrong About Russia’s Military” (Sept 2023)
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/russian-federation/what-west-still-gets-…
6. Frič and Pernica, “Civil-Military Relations in the Season of Military Populism:
Czechia, Armed Forces & Society, Online first
VII. October 16: Africa (especially East Africa)/Middle East
Read: 1. Barany, The Soldier and the Changing State, Chapter 9 (Ghana, Tanzania,
Botswana), 275-302.
2. Elischer, “The Republic of Niger: The Military as a Security and Political Actor,”
76-88 in The Routledge Handbook of Civil-Military Relations (2021)
3. Skarda, “Uganda: Civilian Control of the Military and Its Limits,” 89-101 in The
Routledge Handbook of Civil-Military Relations (2021)
4. Sigman, “Election, Security, and Democratic Civil-Military Relations in Ghana,”
153-165 in The Routledge Handbook of Civil-Military Relations (2021)
5. Lee and Farrell, “Civil-Military Operations in Kenya’s Rift Valley: Sociocultural
Impacts at the Local Level,” Prism, 2:2 (March 2011): 159-168.
6. Berg, “Elite Bargains and External Influence: Security Assistance and Civil-
Military Relations in Post-War Liberia and Sierra Leone,” Civil Wars, 22:2-3
(2020): 266-288.
7. “Africa’s Coups Are Part of a Bigger Crisis,” Economist, October 3, 2023.
Detailed, annotated research paper outline is due!
VIII. October 23: South/Southeast/and Central Asia
Read: 1. Barany, The Soldier and the Changing State, Chapter 6, South Korea, Thailand,
Indonesia, 178-211
2. Shannon Brown, “Singapore: Civil-Military Fusion and Militarized Civilians,”
118-130; Routledge Handbook of CMR
3. Philip Lorenz, “Indonesia: The Pitfalls of Imperfect Civilian Control for Military
Effectiveness,” 166-179; Routledge Handbook of CMR
4. Barany, “Burma: Suu Kyi’s Missteps,” Journal of Democracy, 29:1 (Jan 2018)
5. Barany, “Burma: The Generals Strike Back,” JoD, 32:2 (Apr 2021)
6. Chambers, “Arch-Royalist Autocracy Unlimited: Civil-Military Relations in
Contemporary Thailand,” in C. Yamahata, et al. ed., Rights and Security in
India, Myanmar, and Thailand (Springer, 2020), 193-217.
IX. October 30: East Asia: Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan Guest: Major Ryan Ashley
Read: 1. Luo, “Politicization or Professionalism? A Case Study of the Military’s Discourse in China,” Armed Forces & Society, 48:1 (2022): 185-204
November 6: Reading Week (no formal class meeting)
November 13: student presentations
November 20: Thanksgiving holiday week
November 27: student presentations
December 4: student presentations
Research paper due!