Civilian Control and Military Effectiveness: Defense Reforms in Argentina and Chile - Different Impacts With Argentine Effectiveness Undermined, Analysis of Huntington Theories of Civilian Control

This report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. This thesis analyzes the impact that reforms in civil-military relations can have on a military's effectiveness. Specifically, why did reforms undermine military effectiveness in Argentina but not in Chile? To answer this question, this thesis looks at both countries since democratization and parses out both the civil-military reforms carried out as well as changes in effectiveness in an attempt to find linkages between the two. To allow for trend analysis, each country is broken into three discrete blocks of time and analyzed across three independent variables—decisions not made, resources, and resource allocation—in an attempt to determine their impact on the dependent variable: military effectiveness. The two case studies show that while resources and resource allocation are important, their relative importance is unclear since they trended together. The impact of decisions that were not made was inconclusive. As both countries focused on gaining civilian control yet ended in very different positions, this thesis demonstrates the need for the United States to pursue unique policies for each country with which it interacts, based on the needs, desires, and capacities that it possesses.

I. FRAMING THE PROBLEM * A. INTRODUCTION * B. LITERATURE REVIEW * 1. Civilian vs. Democratic Civilian Control of the Military * 2. Military Effectiveness * C. THEORY AND HYPOTHESES * D. RESEARCH DESIGN * II. INCENTIVES AND CONSTRAINTS OF TRANSITION: DID CIVILIANS KNOW WHAT THEY WERE UP AGAINST? * A. CHILE * 1. The Civilians' Lens * 2. Policy Constraints and Military Pushback * 3. Where the Civilians Went Right * B. ARGENTINA * 1. The Civilians' Lens * 2. Policy Constraints and Military Pushback * 3. Where the Civilians Went Wrong * C. CONCLUSION * III. CHILE AND THE LONG, SLOW MARCH TO REFORM * A. STATED MISSIONS OF THE ARMED FORCES * B. 1990-2000 * 1. The First Decade * 2. Military Effectiveness * C. 2000-2010 * 1. Making Progress * 2. Military Effectiveness * D. 2010-2014 * 1. Shifting to the Right * 2. Military Effectiveness * E. ANALYSIS * F. CONCLUSION * IV. THE FINANCIAL COST OF DEFENSE REFORM IN ARGENTINA * A. STATED MISSIONS OF THE ARMED FORCES * B. 1983-1989 * 1. Antagonism * 2. Military Effectiveness * C. 1989-1999 * 1. Redirection * 2. Military Effectiveness * D. 2003-2015 * 1. The Pink Tide * 2. Military Effectiveness * E. ANALYSIS * F. CONCLUSION * V. CONCLUSION * A. IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH * B. SLOW AND STEADY * C. SLASH AND BURN * D. ANALYSIS * E. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS * 1. The Order of Things * 2. One Problem Is Wicked, Having Two is Downright Hard