The Study of Civil-Military Relations in New Democracies

The study of civil-military relations is the perfect research field for engaging in structure vs. agency debate. Generations of scholars have thought about the conditions under which civilian leaders can or cannot establish effective control over their armed forces. From the origins of modern civil-military studies in comparative politics to the present, this question has formed the main theme of the research field. This article discusses pertinent questions in the study of civil-military relations in democratizing East and Southeast Asia from the perspective of Latin American research about civilian control. Thereby it aims to introduce the theme of this special issue and, at the same time, attempts to build an intellectual bridge, connecting research on two regions of the world by pointing to common theoretical and methodological questions.