Fifteen years after the fall of communism, we are able to appraise the results of the multi-faceted postcommunist transition in Central and Eastern Europe with authority. This volume specifically addresses the fascinating area of Civil-Military relations throughout this transitional period. The countries of the region inherited a onerous legacy in this area: their armed forces were part of the communist party-state system and most were oriented towards Cold War missions; they were large in size and supported by high levels of defence spending; and they were based on universal male conscription. Central and eastern European states have thus faced a three fold civil-military reform challenge: establishing democratic and civilian control over their armed forces; implementing organisational reform to meet the security and foreign policy demands of the new era; and redefining military bases for legitimacy in society. This volume assesses the experiences of Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro, Ukraine and Russia in these areas. Collectively these countries illustrate the way in which the interaction of broadly similar postcommunist challenges and distinct national contexts have combined to produce a wide variety of different patterns of civil-military relations. This book was previously published as a special issue of European Security.

This edited collection brings together experts from Europe and the United States to examine how the foundering of the autocracies of Central and Eastern Europe brought about important changes in civil-military relations. Divided into three parts, the volume focuses on international organizations (NATO, WEU, OSCE) and Central-East Europe, the problems of transition to democracy in the region, and relevant developments elsewhere in the world. The work explores the following trends: the increased transparency of defense politics; civilianization of the defense ministries; personnel changes in the upper echelons of the military; national emancipation and new security doctrines; political neutralization of the armed forces; discontinuation of the military's internal security role; and ideological pluralization, among others. An important volume for scholars and students in comparative politics, international relations, and the military and politics.

Since 1989 the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have undergone an unprecedented transition from communism to democracy. Establishment of democratic control of armed forces is an inseparable part of the process of consolidation of democracy. The purpose of this thesis is to define those factors that influence democratization of civil-military relations in post- communist countries in the process of transition to democracy. My argument is that countries develop democratic control of armed forces in different ways and with different time boundaries, until the end state is achieved, The democratization of civil-military relations depends on capability of the country in transition to effectively establish (by which I mean to build and put into effect) institutions for democratic control of the military. In evaluating development of the democratization of civil-military relations the post- communist countries of Hungary and Bulgaria are studied in detail with particular attention to the process of establishment, development, and interrelation of institutional arrangements. In this aspect historical legacy, international context and path of transition can help or obstruct the process of development of institutions for democratic control of armed forces.

This book represents the first attempt to deal with the problem of how to conceptualize the civil-military relations of communist systems within a common intellectual framework. The opening chapters present three major constructs originally designed for analyzing civil-military relations in the USSR: the interest group approach, the institutional congruence approach, and the participatory model. In subsequent chapters the utility of these approaches is tested against a wide variety of communist systems, including those of Cuba, the USSR, China, Romania, Hungary, the GDR, and Poland. In probing these issues for the first time, the authors shed considerable light on the transnational differences and similarities among communist systems, and the dynamics of civil-military relations in all communist systems.

This study explores the complex military issues that are raised by the transition to post-communist rule with particular reference to Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and the new members of NATO. All faced similar problems yet their responses, it emerges, were surprisingly diverse.

The dismantlement of the communist system of control of the military and its replacement with a democratic model is one of the most significant aspects of the post-communist transition in East-Central Europe and the former Soviet-Union. The success of democratic civil-military reforms is an important and underappreciated measure of the state of democratic transitions in these countries, and it also has important implications for and links with regional security and NATO relations. This book examines the state of democratic civil-military reforms in nine East-Central and former Soviet states: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Russia, and Ukraine. An examination of these states is of particular interest and importance given their varied relationship with NATO, a relationship that is influenced to a large extent by the amount of progress in reforming their post-communist system of control of their militaries. Following a comprehensive theoretical chapter on civil-military relations, the individual chapters consider the accomplishments as well as the outstanding shortcomings of democratic civil-military reforms. Overall, the book argues that the weaknesses apparent in all these countries in the implementation of the democratic norms of civilian control of the military require continued attention in order to strengthen not only the relationship with NATO (wither membership is already obtained or sought) but also regional security in general.