About COMER
The Copenhagen Middle East Research Programme (COMER) is based on a cooperation between the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen and the Institute for Strategy at the Royal Danish Defence College.

COMER aims at producing research into contemporary Middle Eastern security politics and societal development.

For further information, please contact programme director Nicolas T. Veicherts.


Project description: Civil society and civil-military relations in the Arab World
The Copenhagen Middle East Research Programme (COMER) is based on the growing debate on the role of civil society in the Arab world. Arab civil society was overlooked within the literature until the debate took off in the beginning of the 1990’s [1] . Since then many research programmes on this topic have been initiated, but several dimensions of the topic still have to be explored and examined. One of these dimensions regards the potentials of Arab civil society with respect to the stabilization of society – of which many are undergoing transformation processes, including the risk of instability, and facing the challenges arising from of democratisations processes.

In the light of the Arab tradition of ’armed’ politics, the 2003 War on Iraq, and the series of current political conflicts, the stabilizing potentials are closely linked to the use of military means (including expected peace-keeping operations). In addition, the Arab world is currently subject to a virtual wave of successions, while new ideas and demands are emerging. On this background, COMER focuses at the interaction between Arab civil society and the use of military means.

The essential research question is: to which extent do Arab civil societies comprise stabilizing potentials under the conditions as mentioned? The research question relates directly to the central research debate on civil-military relations. It also relates to the political development in the Arab World in the years to come – including the choice of strategies and support.

There are several reasons why the interaction between civil and military relations needs a closer examination.

The first reason is that existing research results show a series of connections between state building processes, warfare, and the development of democracy. Warfare was often the catalyst for democratic development [2] , but the empirical material consisted of ’traditional’ wars. The 2003 Iraq War was different, and likewise it was the first time warfare was initiated with ‘democracy’ as the purpose of the war.

The second reason is that the general picture of the relationship between the military and democratisation does not show off any unambiguous causal relations. In principle, four options exist: the military initiates democratization; the military prevents democratization; the military preserves democracy; and the military abolishes democracy. Empirically, examples of all these options are available. Consequently, one cannot beforehand foresee the role of a given military in the development of democracy. Instead, the role of the military depends on its relations to civil society, the state and other contextual variables.

The third reason is that the military currently plays a substantial role in the majority of the Arab states. Some states have military regimes, while the elites in other states base their position on the military. Additionally, the series of political conflicts in the Middle East implies that the military sectors are still important societal actors.

Arab civil societies are thus important co-players due to their potential stabilizing role, and because they have developed rapidly during the recent years. In states with weak markets and declining states, they therefore become central actors alongside and in interaction with the militaries.

The concept of civil society is understood as institutions and organizations constructed on the basis of meaning – in contrast to the state, which is build on the basis of decisions, and the market on productivity. Civil society is assumed to hold strong stabilizing potentials as it contributes to the creation of societal cohesion.

The abstract model of ‘state-market-civil society’ is used to identify the research area in general. More specifically, the project deals with ‘material’ civil societies in the Arab world. These comprise non-governmental self-organizing institutions, such as “…households, charitable groups, clubs and voluntary associations, independent churches and publishing houses” (John Keane 1998:6) [3]. The voluntary character of the activity of such groups implies, as Keane has argued, that their “members are equipped with the power to reinterpret and to transform the social and political structures within which they interact” (1998:31).

Civil society can thus contribute to societal processes with a stabilizing dynamic by the creation of societal cohesion, but it also contributes to a pluralist development by its power to influence political structures. In a responsive state, the various formations of civil society supplies information of the needs and demands from different sectors of society. The central authorities are thereby enabled to take these into account. This is the image of the civil society that functions both as a resource of stabilization and pluralism. The opposite image is the society in a context where civil organisations functions as destabilising factors towards an irresponsive state.

The prospect of civil societies will become key actors in the future processes has lead COMER to ask two sub-questions: The first question regards the actual strength of the Arab civil societies – that is, whether or not they are strong enough to play a stabilizing role in the transformation processes. The second question regards the specific activities and values of the civil societies – that is, whether they will play a preservative or an innovative role in the transformation processes.

This is the COMER research agenda. Practically, the research aims at assessing the stabilizing potentials of the Arab civil societies and their interaction with the military sector – based on a mapping of their qualities by means of a mixture of the use of existing literature, novel empirical findings and the specific analysis. The time-span of the analysis comprises the post-Cold War era, as the transformation of the region already begun in 1989. The methods applied are predominantly comparative analyses based on focused case-studies as well as on quantitative surveys and interviews.

 

[1] The debate took off by the publication of Norton, Richard Augustus (ed.): Civil Society in the Middle East, Vol. 1. Leiden: E. J. Brill Publishers, 1994.
[2] Porter, Bruce: War and the Rise of the State. New York: Free Press, 1994.
[3] Keane, John: Civil Society – Old Images, New Visions. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998.


The following publications have been released from COMER

• Carsten Jensen (2008): Developments in Civil-Military relations in the Middle East
• Bertel Heurlin (JUN 2006): Syria: An international loser? US-Syrian Relations after 9.11.
• Birthe Hansen and Carsten Jensen (2006): Vejen til Tryghed - Sikkerhed og demokrati i Mellemøsten [The Road to Security - Security and Democracy in the Middle East], Copenhagen, Atlantsammenslutningen.
• Carsten Jensen (2006): Civilsamfund og Mellemøsten [Civil Society and the Middle East], Department of Political Sciende, University of Copenhagen, Working Paper 2006/06.
• Birthe Hansen and Carsten Jensen (2006): Unipolarity and Democracy in the Middle East, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Working Paper 2006/04.
• Birthe Hansen and Carsten Jensen (2006): Challenges to the role of Arab Militaries. A Third Phase?, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Working Paper 2006/03.
• Ali Alfoneh (2006): The Study of Civil-Military Relations in the Middle East and North Africa, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Working Paper 2006/02.
• Birthe Hansen (2006): The Middle East and the Impact of Unipolarity, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Working Paper 2006/01.
• Birthe Hansen and Carsten Jensen (JUL 2005): Mellemøsten i Opbrud [Break Up in the Middle East], Copenhagen, Atlantsammenslutningen.