This important new volume, sponsored by the Indiana Center on Global Change and World Peace, brings together academicians and practitioners in comparative politics and international relations to examine the impact of civil-military relations on the process of democratization. Contributors take an unprecedented look at current and emerging patterns of linkages between civil-military relations and democratization, especially in areas which have embarked on the path of democratization since the 1980s. They also challenge or refine many of the concepts and models that have figured prominently in discussions of civil-military relations and democratization. These include the notion that democratization requires adoption of the traditional Western model of civil-military relations.

The US must take into account the nature of the threats confronting it in devising its military strategy and force structure. Recent years, however, have brought significant changes in these threats. Therefore, the threats need to be reassessed and reprioritized, and the implications of the outcome for US military strategy and force structure should be examined. In carrying out the reassessment and reprioritization of threats, it is essential to observe two key principles: (1) emphasis should go to direct challenges to US interests rather than to those of a peripheral concern, and (2) threats should be weighted primarily in terms of the probability that they will actually materialize and not in terms of what havoc they would wreak if they did materialize. On the basis of these criteria, four major threats seem likely to face the US in the coming years. In descending order of importance, they are regional conflicts, Soviet strategic nuclear forces, anti-US terrorism, and Soviet conventional military forces. This configuration of challenges establishes a number of requirements for future US military strategy and force structure. Although it does not afford detailed guidelines for either, it does set broad parameters for both. A few of these requirements merely revalidate aspects of past strategy and force structure, but many dictate new approaches.

The stunning changes in the complexion of international politics that began late in the decade of the 1980s and continue today will profoundly affect the American military establishment as a whole, and the US Air Force in particular. Decisions about the future course of the military will be made in the early part of the 1990s which will essentially determine the course of the US Air Force well into the next century. Decisions of such importance require thoughtful consideration of all points of view. This report is one in a special series of CADRE Papers which address many of the issues that decision makers must consider when undertaking such momentous decisions. The list of subjects addressed in this special series is by no means exhaustive, and the treatment of each subject is certainly not definitive. However, the Papers do treat topics of considerable importance to the future of the Air Force, treat them with care and originality, and provide valuable insights. We believe this special series of CADRE Papers can be of considerable value to policymakers at all levels as they plan for the US Air Force and its role in the so-called postcontainment environment.