Civil-military relations and military change

This chapter argues that Huntington’s professionalism paradigm of civil-military relations, on which global security governance actors usually rely on in their foreign policy policies and grand strategies, is not sufficient to explain civil-military relations and military change in hybrid orders. The chapter critically discusses the key specialist literature on civil-military relations, by looking in particular at institutionalist, sociological and pluralist models. The determinants of military change and transformation can be endogenous or exogenous to the military institution. The chapter explains the conceptual underpinnings of two types of sources of military change, on which the book focuses in particular: civil-military relations and cultural change in the military institution (normative change or strategic adaptation).