CHALLENGES TO DEMOCRATIC CIVILIAN CONTROL OF THE SECURITY SECTOR AND THEIR EFFECTS ON SECURITY: THE CASE OF FORMER SOVIET CONSOLIDATING DEMOCRACIES

Abstract

This comparative case-study analysis of civil-military relations (CMR) in Lithuania and Mongolia reveals similar challenges leading to ineffective and inefficient security governance that undermines public trust and confidence in strategic decisions made by those governments. Although the largely successful democratic transition in those former Soviet states has led to Western-style CMRs well defined in constitutional-legal terms, it has yet to achieve depoliticized security governance due to persisting political, socio-economic, cultural, and security legacies. These legacies, as well as a lack of underdeveloped or unutilized mechanisms and tools, thwart unbiased leadership and transparent management. Civil society in each of the countries studied lacks the essential capacity to contribute not only to effective oversight and public scrutiny, but to a judiciary free from corruption and capable of earning the public’s trust. Similarly, the study finds these problems fully correlate with CMR challenges in the Republic of Georgia, another former Soviet state and consolidating democracy. Solutions recommended by this study include increased Western demand and support for further democratic progress, and the exploration of innovative ways to build public trust and confidence in security governance and the democratic way of governance in general.