MILITARY PROFESSIONALISM AND THE FUTURE OF CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS IN AFRICA
Author
Wilkerson, Richard T.
Date
2018-06Advisor
Matei, Cristiana
Second Reader
Piombo, Jessica R.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Transnational crime, violent extremism, insecurity, and instability are common challenges that negatively impact U.S. interests in Africa, including democracy promotion, development, trade, peace, and security. Professional African militaries are one potential solution to these challenges. Toward this end, U.S. military training and professional education has increased in Africa since 2002. Building professional militaries can improve security but also presents a moral dilemma. African regimes are often criticized for poor governance—including patrimonial, kleptocratic, and authoritarian rule—and African armies are often political in nature. In this regard, this thesis investigated whether U.S. training and professional education encourages democratic civil-military relations or simply provides rulers with more lethal militaries. From a comparison of four case studies, the effects of U.S. security assistance to El Salvador and Colombia during the 1980s and 1990s were compared to the political and military environments of modern Cameroon and Senegal to determine potential outcomes of current and future training and professional education programs there. Results show likely increases in soldiering skills but indeterminate effects on the professionalism required for transition to democratic civil–military relations. This transition is more probable when both the partner state’s regime and military are reform-minded, and reforms are implemented throughout the defense sector.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.Collections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Potential cost savings and cost avoidances associated with security cooperation training programs
Carroll, Michael J. (Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2015-12);In this project, I examine the current security cooperation and assistance efforts in the U.S. Africa Command area of responsibility with a particular focus on training of foreign military forces under 10 U.S. Code § 2282. ... -
Reducing Insecurity in Africa; Roles and Responsibilities of the U.S. Military, U.S. Government, and Non-Governmental Communities
Piombo, Jessica; Dearing, Matthew; Jordt, Gustav; Neal, Jason; Perazzola, Laura (2012-03-09);"The workshop titled Reducing Insecurity in 'Africa: Roles and Responsibilities of the U.S. Military, U.S. Government and Non-Government Communities' was held in Monterey, California in December 2010. Sponsored by the ... -
Stabilization operations through military capacity building--integration between Danish conventional forces and special operations forces
Andreassen, Jesper J. D.; Boesgaard, Kenneth; Svendsen, Anders D. (Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2016-12);Due to instability in Africa and the Middle East, Denmark's political commitment to deploy troops to stabilize fragile regions is not expected to decrease in the near future. The political ambition for Denmark is to conduct ...