When human capital threatens the Capitol

Jesse Dillon Savage and Jonathan D Caverley
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Jesse Dillon Savage: Department of Political Science, Trinity College Dublin
Jonathan D Caverley: Strategic and Operational Research, College of Naval Warfare Studies, US Naval War College

Journal of Peace Research, 2017, vol. 54, issue 4, 542-557

Abstract: How does aid in the form of training influence foreign militaries’ relationship to domestic politics? The United States has trained tens of thousands of officers in foreign militaries with the goals of increasing its security and instilling respect for human rights, democracy, and civilian control. We argue that training increases the military’s power relative to the regime in a way that other forms of military assistance do not. While other forms of military assistance are somewhat fungible, allowing the regime to shift resources towards coup-proofing, human capital is a resource vested solely in the military. Training thus alters the balance of power between the military and the regime resulting in greater coup propensity. Using data from 189 countries from 1970 to 2009 we show that greater numbers of military officers trained by the US International Military Education and Training (IMET) and Countering Terrorism Fellowship (CTFP) programs increases the probability of a military coup.

Keywords: civil-military relations; coups; foreign military training; US foreign policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:joupea:v:54:y:2017:i:4:p:542-557

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