ISSUE: 1/2023

  • Volume 27
  • Number 1
  • 2023

Subscribe NEWSLETTER

Studia Europejskie –
Studies in European Affairs

ISSN: 1428-149X
e-ISSN: 2719-3780

Ccbync License

License

Articles published in the journal are under a Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial – No Derivatives 4.0 International License

Is the Spanish Army’s Experimental Brigade 2035 a Result of Civil-military Relations? A Historical Overview (1923–2021)

Abstract

This article analyses the evolution of civil-military relations in Spain from 1923 to 2021. The research defines the role of the military organisation during two authoritarian regimes in the 20th century along with the country’s democratic transition. After a historical overview, the military change process known as Experimental Brigade 2035 is selected as a case study to determine whether its origin is civilian or military in nature. The results of the research evidence the civilian infl uence in budgetary issues and limits in performance. At the same time, the military has a certain autonomy to implement modernisation plans in the framework of assigned competences.

References

Albrecht, H. (2015) “Does Coup-Proofi ng work? Political Military relations in authoritarian regimes amid the Arab uprisings”, Mediterranean Politics. Vol. 20(1), pp. 36–54. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.
2014.932537.

Albrecht, H. and Ohl, D. (2016) “Exit, resistance, loyalty: Military behavior during unrest in authoritarian regimes”, Perspective on politics. Vol.14(1), pp. 38–52. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592715003217.

Albright, D.E. (1980) “Comparative conceptualization of Civil-Military Relations”, World Politics. Vol. 32(4), pp. 553–576. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2010057.

Andreski, S. (1971) Military organization and society. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Andreski, S. (1980) “On the peaceful disposition of military dictatorships”. Journal of Strategic Studies. Vol. 3 (30), pp. 3–10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01402398008437052.

Balbé, M. (1983) Orden Público y militarismo en la España Constitucional (1812–1983). Madrid: Alianza.

Belkin, A. and Schofer, E. (2003) “Toward a structural understanding of coup risk”. Journal of Confl ict Resolution. Vol. 47(5), pp. 594–620. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002703258197.

Bienen, H. (1981) “Civil-Military relations in the third world”, International political science review. Vol. 2(3), pp. 363–370. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/019251218100200312.

Blanco-Rodríguez, M. (2019) La adaptación de las fuerzas armadas al future uso de sistemas de armas autónomos. [Master Thesis]. Madrid: Instituto Universitario General Gutiérrez Mellado.

Bou Nassif, H. (2015) “General and autocrats: How Coup-Proofing predetermined the military elite’s behavior in the Arab Spring”, Political Science Quaterly. Vol. 130(2), pp. 245–275. DOI: https://doi.
org/10.1002/polq.12324.

Brooks, R. (1998) Political-military relations and the stability of Arab regimes. London: International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Bukkvoll, T. (2015) “Military Innovation Under authoritarian government: The case of Russian Special Operation Forces”, Journal of Strategic Studies. Vol. 38(5), pp. 602–625. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2015.1056342.

Buley, B. (2007) The new American way of war: Military Culture and the political utility of force. New York: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203934166.

Burr, R.M. (1998) Leading change: The military as a learning organization. Breckinridge Hall: Marine Corps University.

Catignani, S. (2013) “Coping with knowledge: Organizational learning in the British Army?”, Journal of Strategic Studies. Vol. 37(1), pp. 30–64. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2013.776958.

Chehabi, H.E. and Linz, J.J. (1998) Sultanistic Regimes. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.56021/9780801856938.

Criado Gutiérrez, J.C. (2016) “50 de la participación española en la Guerra de Vietnam”, Armas y Cuerpos. Vol. 133, pp. 65–72.

Cruz, R. (2001) “Dos rebeliones en España, 1923 y 1936. La lógica de la guerra política”, Historia y política: Ideas, procesos y movimientos sociales. Vol. 5, pp. 29–54.

Davidson, J. (2010) Lifting the Fog of Peace. How Americans learned to fight modern war. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.236784.

De Madariaga, M.R. (2014) “Confrontation in the Spanish Zone (1945–1956): Franco, the nationalists, and the post-war politics of decolonization”, The Journal of North African Studies. Vol. 19(4), pp. 490–500. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2014.948768.95

Debs, A. (2010) “Living by the sword and dying by the sword? Leadership transitions in and out of dictatorships”, International Studies Quarterly. Vol. 60(1), pp. 73–84. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqv014.

Egnell, R. (2007) “Explaining US and British performance in complex expeditionary operations: the civil-military dimension”, Journal of Strategic Studies. Vol. 29(6), pp. 1041–1075. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390601016717.

Farrell, T. (2005) “World culture and military power”, Security Studies. Vol. 14(3), pp. 448–488. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09636410500323187.

Farrell, T. (2010) “Improving in war: Military Adaptation and the British in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, 2006–2009”, Journal of Strategic Studies. Vol. 33(4), pp. 567–594. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/014023
90.2010.489712.

Geddes, B. (1999) Authoritarian breakdown: empirical test of a game theoretic argument. Annual Meeting American Political Science Association. Available at: https://eppam.weebly.com/uploads/5/5/6/2/5562069/
authoritarianbreakdown_geddes.pdf (Access 3.01.2023).

Geddes, B., Frantz, E. and Wright, J.G. (2014) “Military Rule”, Annual Review of Political Science. Vol. 17(1), pp. 147–162. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-032211-213418.

González Martínez, C. (2000) “La Dictadura de Primo de Rivera: una propuesta de análisis”, Anales de Historia Contemporánea. Vol. 16.

Gray, C.S. (2011) Hard power and soft power: the utility of military force as an instrument of policy in the 21st century. Carlisle: Strategic Studies Institute. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21236/ADA542526.

Haaland, T.L. (2016) “The limits to learning in military operations: Bottom-Up adaptations in the Norwegian army in northern Afghanistan, 2007–2012”, Journal of Strategic Studies. Vol. 39(7), pp. 999–1022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2016.1202823.

Horowitz, M.C. (2010) The Diffusion of Military Power: Causes and consequences for international politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400835102.

Huntington, S. (1957) The soldier and the state: The theory and politics of Civil-Military relations. Massachusetts: The Belkamp Press, Harvard University Press.

Janowitz, M. (1971) The professional soldier: A social and political portrait. New York: Free Press.

Jordan, J. (2017) “Un modelo explicativo de los procesos de cambio en las organizaciones militares. La respuesta de Estados Unidos después del 11-S como caso de estudio”, Revista de Ciencia Política. Vol. 37(1), pp. 203–226. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-090X2017000100009.

Kiszely, J. (2018) “The political-military dynamic in the conduct of strategy”, Journal of Strategic Studies. Vol. 42(2), pp. 235–258. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2018.1497488.

Laclau, E. (2016). La razón populista. Madrid: Fondo de cultura económica de España.

Lai, B. and Slater, D. (2006) “Institutions of the Offensive: Domestic Sources of Dispute Initiation in Authoritarian Regimes 1950–1992”, American Journal of Political Science. Vol. 50(1), pp. 113–126.

Lewis, P.H. (2002) Latin Fascist Elites. The Mussolini, Franco and Salazar Regimes. Londres: Praeger.

López-Rodríguez, G. (2019) “Innovación militar en el ejército español durante la Guerra de Marruecos (1921–1927)”, Revista Española de Ciencia Política. Vol. 51, pp. 155–173. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21308/recp.51.06.

López-Rodríguez, G. (2022) “Building military expeditionary culture: Spanish Army after International Operations”, Defense & Security Analysis. Vol. 38(4). pp. 410–430. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14751
798.2022.2114582.

López-Rodríguez, G. (2022a) La Unidad Militar de Emergencias durante la pandemia del Covid-19 en España in: De la Garza Montemayor, D. and Peña Ramos, J.A. (eds.) Transformaciones en la vida social a raíz del aceleramiento de la interacción digital durante la coyuntura del Covid-19. Mexico City: Tirant Editorial.

Martínez, R. (2011) “Las Fuerzas Armadas en España: ¿El último bastión del franquismo?”, Revista Prolegómenos. Derechos y Valores. Vol. 14(28), pp. 103–120. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18359/prole.2381.

Martínez, R. (2013) Las relaciones civiles-militares en sociedades en transformación: América Latina. CIDOB 36.

Martínez, R. et al. (2012) “Experiencias de la participación militar española en misiones internacionales (2000–2012)”, Revista Española de Ciencia Política. Vol. 32, pp. 205–223.

Miller, R.A. (1995) “Democratic structures and the diversionary use of force”, American Journal of Political Science. Vol. 39(3), pp. 760–785. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2111653.

Nielsen, S.C. (1999) US Army training and doctrine command 1973–1982: A case study in successful peacetime militray reform. [Master Thesis]. Fort Leavenworth: US Army Command and General Staff College.

Olivas Osuna, J.J. (2019) “Revolutionary versus reactionary: Contrasting Portuguese and Spanish Civil-Military Relations during democratization”, War & Society. Vol. 38 (3), pp. 225–248. DOI: https://
doi.org/10.1080/07292473.2019.1617663.

Pachon, A. (2014) “Loyalty and defection: Misunderstanding civilmilitary relations in Tunisia during the Arab spring”, Journal of Strategic Studies. Vol. 37(4), pp. 508–531. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2013.847825.

Pardo Sanz, R. (2001) “The Mediterranean Policy of Franco’s Spain”, Mediterranean Historical Review. Vol. 16(2), pp. 45–68. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/714004580.

Payne, S.G. (1998) “Fascist Italy and Spain, 1922–45”, Mediterranean Historical Review. Vol. 13(1–2), pp. 99–115. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09518969808569738.

Penecy, M. and Butler, C.K. (2004) “The conflict behavior of authoritarian regimes”, International Politics. Vol. 41, pp. 565–581. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ip.8800093.

Pion-Berlin, D. (1992) “Military autonomy and emerging democracies in South America”, Comparative Politics. Vol. 25(1), pp. 83–102. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/422098.

Posen, B. (1984) The Sources of Military Doctrine: France, Britain and Germany between the World Wars. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Prat, M. and Molina, O. (2014) “State corporatism and democratic industrial relations in Spain 1926–1935: a reappraisal”, Labor History. Vol. 55(2), pp. 208–227. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0023656X.2013.
852823.

Puell de la Villa, F. (2005) Historia del Ejército en España. Madrid: Alianza.

Quiroga Fernández de Soto, A. (2013) “Cirujano de hierro. La construcción carismática del general Primo de Rivera”, Ayer. Vol. 91(3), pp. 147–168.

Rapp, W.E. (2015) “Civil-Military relations: The role of military leaders in strategy making”, Parameters. Vol. 45(1), pp. 13–26. DOI: https://doi.org/10.55540/0031-1723.2739.

Rosen, S.P. (1991) Winning the next war. Innovation and the Modern Military. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Santamarta del Pozo, J. (2017) Siempre tuvimos héroes. Madrid: EDAF. Smith, R. (2008) The utility of force: The art of war in the Modern World. New York: Random House.

Sueiro S.S. (1998) “Spanish colonialism during Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship”, Mediterranean Historical Review. Vol. 13(1–2), pp. 48–64. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09518969808569735.

Svolik, M.W. (2013) “Contracting on violence: The moral hazard in authoritarian repression and military intervention in politics”, Journal of Confl ict Resolution. Vol. 57, pp. 765–794. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002712449327.

Tsebelis, G. (2002) Veto Players: How political institutions work. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Van Creveld, M. (1991) Technology and War. From 2000 B.C. to the Present. New York: The Free Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400831456.

Weeks, J.L. (2012) “Strongmen and Straw Men: Authoritarian Regimes and the initiation of International Confl ict”, American Political Science Review. Vol. 106(2), pp. 326–347. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/
S0003055412000111.

Winton, H.R. (2011) “An imperfect Jewel: Military theory and the military profession”, Journal of Strategic Studies. Vol. 34(6), pp. 853–877. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2011.583389.

Language: English

Pages: 81-98

How to Cite:

Harvard

López-Rodríguez, G. (2023) "Is the Spanish Army’s Experimental Brigade 2035 a Result of Civil-military Relations? A Historical Overview (1923–2021)". Studia Europejskie – Studies in European Affairs, 1/2023, pp. 81-98. DOI: 10.33067/SE.1.2023.4

APA
Chicago