The Bad, the Good, and the Ugly

Abstract

Does civil–military conflict harm military effectiveness? Most previous empirical literature on the effects of civil–military conflict has utilized dichotomous indicators of the presence or absence of overall civilian control. However, the extant theoretical literature is clear that mid-levels of civil–military conflict could be good for innovation and overall decision making. In line with these arguments, the author argues that we should not expect all civil–military conflict to harm military effectiveness and, by extension, international crisis bargaining outcome. Instead, some civil–military conflict should have a positive effect on the overall success of the military. Utilizing new events data that captures the level of civil–military conflict cross nationally from 1990 to 2004, the author examines how civil–military conflict actually has an inverse U-shaped relationship with crisis success. This project also adds to the theoretical literature by examining variations across different degrees of civil–military conflicts, drawing attention to the usefulness of mid-range civil–military “friction.”