Armed Forces in Deeply Divided Societies: Lebanon, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq and Burundi: Militaries in Power-Sharing Systems (International Comparative Social Studies, 57)

Eduardo Wassim Aboultaif critically analyzes civil–military relations and the way armies are constructed in divided societies. To achieve that, the book looks at four case studies with deep divisions and whose armed forces have been reconstructed after civil wars. Lebanon and Bosnia-Herzegovina represent two examples of consociational power-sharing arrangements with functioning armed forces that enjoy wide popular support and neutral in internal affairs. Iraq and Burundi, however, have semi-consociational provisions that have politicized the army and made it a partisan military that has either led to disintegration (as in the case of Iraq) or politicization and loss of legitimacy (as in Burundi).

Eduardo Wassim Aboultaif, Ph.D. in Politics (2017) is an Assistant Professor of Politics at the Higher Institute of Political and Administrative Sciences in the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (Lebanon). He has published extensively on power-sharing arrangements, deeply divided societies, and Middle East affairs.