Guns, Power, and Markets: The Military and the State in the Middle East, 1970-2010

枪支、权力和市场：中东的军队和国家，1970-2010 年

• 批准号: AH/H006443/1
• 负责人: Yezid Sayigh
• 金额: $ 4.56万
• 依托单位: King's College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2010 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FH006443%2F1
• 关键词: Guns; Power; Markets; Military; State

The military has been central to the construction of state power and politics in the Middle East since 1945, and especially since the rise of oil wealth from 1965 onwards. It has affected attitudes and policies towards democratization, economic policies, and social pacts, as well as waging numerous inter-state and civil wars. Throughout it has influenced modes and rules of public participation in politics, engaged increasingly in commercial activity, and in recent years has sub-contracted security functions to private agents and state-sponsored paramilitaries. Yet the military has rarely been researched since the path-breaking studies of the 1960s and early 1970s, despite sweeping transformations in political systems, economies, and demographics and the massive expansion of state sectors and armed forces throughout the Middle East. The main exceptions have been Israel and Turkey, but the dearth of systematic study of the military in the Arab states and Iran is all the more remarkable. This is partly due to the decline of military coups d'état: from 24 coups or serious attempts in 1949-1971, to only one a decade since then. This trend is often attributed to stabilization strategies by civilian elites or to military professionalization, processes that are seen to have 'tamed' the military and prompted its return to the barracks. In fact, the region's militaries have succeeded over the past four decades in securing their agendas within existing political and constitutional systems, enmeshing themselves in power elites, political systems, and civil and business networks. Their interventions have consequently become more discreet. Many Middle East militaries have also acquired importance as social welfare systems for significant population sectors, but this function is increasingly under strain as economic liberalization and privatization erode living standards and widen income disparities. Some militaries have sought to offset the decline through commercial activities intended to generate extra-budgetary income streams. In summary, the project seeks to fill the gap in historical scholarship by examining the diversification, extension, and transformation of the roles of Middle East militaries in the context of massive social transformation since the 1970s oil price revolution, economic liberalization and privatization since 1980, and strategic change that has seen the end of the Cold War, projection of American power, and emergence of a new international security agenda since 9/11 and the global war on terror. Ultimately, proper understanding of the military is critical to the success of Western policies aimed at bringing about democratic control of armed forces and security sector reform in the Middle East, to which the author contributes regularly as a policy advisor.

自1945年以来，军队一直是中东国家权力和政治建设的核心，特别是自1965年石油财富崛起以来。它影响了对民主化的态度和政策，经济政策和社会契约，以及发动许多国家间和内战。在整个过程中，它影响了公众参与政治的方式和规则，越来越多地参与商业活动，近年来，它将安全职能分包给私人代理人和国家支持的准军事组织。然而，自20世纪60年代和70年代初开创性的研究以来，尽管政治制度、经济和人口结构发生了翻天覆地的变化，国家部门和武装部队在整个中东地区大规模扩张，但人们很少对军队进行研究。主要的例外是以色列和土耳其，但阿拉伯国家和伊朗缺乏对军事的系统研究，这一点更加引人注目。这部分是由于军事政变的减少：从1949年至1971年的24次政变或严重企图，到此后的十年只有一次。这一趋势往往归因于文职精英的稳定战略或军事专业化，这些进程被视为“驯服”了军队，促使其返回军营。事实上，该地区的军队在过去40年里成功地在现有的政治和宪法体系中确保了自己的议程，并将自己与权力精英、政治体系以及民间和商业网络联系在一起。因此，他们的干预变得更加谨慎。许多中东国家的军队作为重要人口阶层的社会福利系统也获得了重要性，但随着经济自由化和私有化侵蚀生活水平和扩大收入差距，这一职能日益受到压力。一些军队试图通过旨在产生预算外收入流的商业活动来抵消这一下降。总之，该项目旨在填补历史学术的差距，通过研究中东军队在自20世纪70年代石油价格革命以来的大规模社会转型，自1980年以来的经济自由化和私有化，以及冷战结束后的战略变化，美国力量的投射，以及自9/11和全球反恐战争以来新的国际安全议程的出现。最终，对军队的正确理解对于西方政策的成功至关重要，这些政策旨在实现对中东武装部队和安全部门改革的民主控制，作者经常作为政策顾问为这些政策做出贡献。