From Apartheid to Democracy: The Civil-Military Relations in the Republic of South Africa

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the civil-military relations in the Republic of South Africa as of the end of apartheid. The analysis is based on the theoretical framework of Charles Moskos et al. The basic argument is that a change in the international security environment such as the end of the Cold War and the balance of power has had implications on the perceived threat and consequently on the military's mission, force structure, the dominant military professional, and the allocated budget. These changes have also resulted in a change of the military's values and norms. Formerly, society was willing to accept that the military had its own unique values and norms because of the requirement to serve a presumed higher good; this no longer is the case. Moskos uses factors such as the changed relationship between the military and media, the change in the public attitude toward the military, or the role of women and homosexuals in the military to show how the values and norms of the military are changing and how these changes are closing the gap between civilian society and the military. With regard to South Africa, the thesis will show that the civil-military relation has developed along the lines of the postmodern paradigm. However, the newly elected democratic government was challenged by the need to conduct a balanced transformation in which the South African Defense Force simultaneously had to build an institution that is transparent, accountable and representative of the societal demographics. Also, the DoD had to incorporate eight former statutory and non-statutory armies, guerillas, and revolutionaries into one force, while reducing the total number of soldiers and with a reduced budget. Additionally and contrary to the postmodern paradigm, the transformation of the S. Afr. National Defense Force and the civil-military relations are not only shaped by external factors but to a large degree by domestic issues such as poverty, distribution of wealth, crime or HIV/AIDS.7

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2004
Accession Number
ADA424664

Entities

People

  • Thomas H. Burchert

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Business Administration
  • Case Studies
  • Cold War
  • Demography
  • Department Of Defense
  • Employment
  • Force Structure
  • Governments
  • Homosexuality
  • International Organizations
  • Military Budgets
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Recreation
  • Security
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Economics
  • International Relations, focusing on Korea-Africa and North Korea-South Korea relations, and Nigeria-Latin American Relations.