Democratic civil-military relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A new paradigm for protectorates?

Abstract

How might Bosnia-Herzegovina attempt to institute democratic civil control over its military? This article applies Cottey. Edmonds. and Forster's thesis of first- and second-generation civil-military relations to the protectorate of Bosnia-Herzegovina. It argues that in the case of Bosnia-Herzegovina, this agenda does not occur in a loosely overlapping fashion with the initiation of the first-generation agenda providing the basis upon which the second-generation agenda can be implemented. Rather, the reverse occurs: the second-generation, capacity-building agenda allows for the construction of state-level institutions in the defense and security sphere - not least a functioning ministry of defense - the hallmark of the first-generation macroinstitutional structural reform agenda. This approach may well prove to be appropriate for other protectorates, and it is of rising strategic significance in an age of preemptive action against failed and rogue states, regime change, and democratization. © 2006 Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society. All rights reserved.