Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T15:57:50.358Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Dilemmas of Military Withdrawal from Politics: Some Considerations from Tropical Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Claude E. Welch
Claude E. Welch*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, State University of New York, Buffalo, New York
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Few people consider the armed forces hesitant in their actions. Speed, decisiveness, efficiency, directness—such are characteristics often attributed to the military. Especially in areas where protection of military autonomy is concerned, quick action may be taken.

Recent African history suggests that members of the armed forces exhibit willingness to leap into active political involvement when challenges arise to their corporate interest. Since June 1965 fifteen African states have experienced coups d'etat. The decisive act of intervention, however, rarely is mirrored by an equally decisive act of withdrawal. Coups are clear-cut events, transitions to civilian governments far less dramatic or marked. As the time to return to the barracks approaches, doubts and hesitations seem to grow. Officers pause, uncertain whether they have accomplished what their intervention allegedly was to correct. They are caught in a dilemma, and as S. E. Finer noted, “whether their rule be indirect of whether it be direct, they cannot withdraw from rulership nor can they fully legitimize it. They can neither stay nor go” (1962, p. 243).

Once military intervention has occurred, voluntary disengagement of the armed forces from direct political involvement comes when withdrawal seems to enhance the military's corporate interest. Splits within the military, relatively restricted objectives, and the opportunity to transfer control to civilians whose outlooks, policies, and backgrounds resemble those of the ruling military group facilitate disengagement.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , April 1974 , pp. 213 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES CITED

Abdel-Malek, Anouar. Egypt: Military Society, the Army Regime, the Left, and Social Change Under Nasser. New York: Vintage, 1968b.Google Scholar
Abrahamsson, Bengt. Military Professionalization and Political Power. Beverly Hills: Sage, 1972.Google Scholar
African Research Bulletin, III, 1 (January 1966a), col. 448C; III, 2 (February 1966b), col. 468A; IV, 12 (December 1967), col. 927C; V, 4 (April 1968), col. 1035C.Google Scholar
Bebler, Anton. “The Military Government in Sierra Leone.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Bienen, Henry, ed. The Military and Modernization. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton, 1971.Google Scholar
Booth, Richard. “The Armed Forces of African States.” Adelphi Paper, No. 67. London: Institute for Strategic Studies, 1970.Google Scholar
Decalo, Samuel. “Military Coups and Military Regimes in Africa.” Journal of Modern African Studies, XI, 1 (March 1973), 105–127.Google Scholar
Feit, Edward. “Military Coups and Political Development: Some Lessons from Ghana and Nigeria.” World Politics, XX, 2 (January 1968), 179–193.Google Scholar
Finer, S. E. The Man on Horseback: The Role of the Military in Politics. New York: Praeger, 1962.Google Scholar
First, Ruth. The Barrel of a Gun: Political Power in Africa and the Coup d'Etat. London: Allen Lane, 1970.Google Scholar
Golan, Tamar. “The Civilians and the Soldiers.” West Africa (February 25, 1972), pp. 216–217.Google Scholar
Halpern, Manfred. The Politics of Social Change in the Middle East and North Africa. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963.Google Scholar
Harris, George S. “The Role of the Military in Turkish Politics.” Middle East Journal, XIX, 1, 54-66; XIX, 2, 169–176.Google Scholar
Heaphey, James. “The Organization of Egypt: Inadequacies of a Nonpolitical Model for Nation Building.” World Politics, XVIII, 2 (January 1966), 177–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoskyns, Catherine. The Congo Since Independence, January 1960-December 1961. London: Oxford University Press, 1965.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968.Google Scholar
Janowitz, Morris. The Military in the Political Development of New Nations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karpat, Kemal. Turkey's Politics: The Transition to a Multi-Party System. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959.Google Scholar
Kraus, Jon. “Arms and Politics in Ghana.” In Welch, Claude E. Jr., ed. Soldier and State in Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Military Intervention and Political Change. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1970. Pp. 218–220.Google Scholar
Lerner, Daniel and Robinson, Richard D.. “Swords and Ploughshares: The Turkish Army as a Modernizing Force.” World Politics, Vol. XIII, No. 1 (October 1960).Google Scholar
Mayfield, James B. Rural Politics in Nasser's Egypt: A Quest for Legitimacy. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Nkrumah, Kwame. “Politics Are Not for Soldiers.” Address by President to cadets of the Ghana Military Academy, May 18, 1961. Accra: Ministry of Information, 1961.Google Scholar
O'Connell, James. “The Inevitability of Instability.” Journal of Modern African Studies, V, 2 (September 1967), 181–191.Google Scholar
Pauker, Guy. “Southeast Asia as a Problem Area in the Next Decade.” World Politics, XI, 3 (April 1959), 325–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Richard D. The First Turkish Republic: A Case Study in National Development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skurnik, W. A. E. “The Military and Politics: Dahomey and Upper Volta.” In Welch, Claude E. Jr., ed. Soldier and State in Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Military Intervention and Political Change. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1970. Pp. 62–121.Google Scholar
Stepan, Alfred. The Military in Politics: Changing Patterns in Brazil. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Villaneuva, Victor. El militarismo en el Peru. Cited in McAlister, Lyle N. et al The Military in Latin American Sociopolitical Evolution: Four Case Studies. Washington: Center for Research in Social Systems, 1970.Google Scholar
Welch, Claude E. Jr. “Praetorianism in Commonwealth West Africa.” Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. X, No. 2 (July 1972).Google Scholar
Zolberg, Aristide R. “The Structure of Political Conflict in the New Nations of Tropical Africa.” American Political Science Review, Vol. LXII, No. 1 (March 1968).Google Scholar