Three Generations of Studies in Civil-Military Relations: A Primer

This article examines the evolution of academic studies in civil-military relations, discussing how research on the subject can be divided into three distinct, yet interrelated, generations of scholarship. Building on the first, archetypal wave of civil-military relations studies on military interventions in politics, the subject has progressively branched out into a second, more nuanced generation of studies, which explored civil-military dynamics between the armed forces and a country’s civilian institutions beyond the scenario of a military coup, focusing on the differences between civilian and democratic control of the armed forces. Lastly, the article explores how the emergence of a third, 'functional' generation of civil-military studies has built on existing academic research to advance our understanding of how the civil-military interface can affect the military's effectiveness.