Rethinking Authoritarian Civil-Military Relations in the Middle East

• In Event: Civilian-Military Relations, Authoritarian Regime Durability and Democratization

Abstract

This paper aims to reconceptualize variation in the civil-military relations of states in the Middle East and North Africa region based on a new theory of authoritarian civil-military relations. Scholars have long focused on coup-proofing tactics and regime type to understand civil-military relations in the region. In so doing, they have missed important differences and commonalities among its regimes. This paper first presents a theory of authoritarian civil-military relations, based on four strategies of political control of the military. It then explores variation in MENA with short qualitative analyses of regimes in Jordan, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Libya. The paper offers a novel categorization of variation over time in these regimes, with lessons more broadly for how scholars analyze civil-military relations in authoritarian states.

Author

• Risa A. Brooks, Marquette University