Globalization and Military Power in the Andes [Hardcover]

Through a series of comparative case studies, the author demonstrates that the conflicts and struggles over capitalist globalization in the Andes are intricately connected to the political power of the military in the region.Military Power and Radical Populism The Erosion of Military Prerogatives: Peru and Colombia 'Radical Populists' and Military Prerogatives in Venezuela and Ecuador Low-Intensity Democracy, Popular Resistance and Military Power in Bolivia

Avil?s challenges institutionalist explanations of changes in civil-military relations in the Andean region, asserting that U.S. support for neoliberal policy coalitions and the war on drugs has led to reduction of military influence and prerogatives in Colombia, Peru, and, to lesser extent, Bolivia (until 2005) - despite significant internal security threats and insurgencies. In contrast, in Ecuador and Venezuela, repudiation of the neoliberal agenda by social movements and nationalist governments has allowed incorporation of the armed forces into national development agendas that have expanded military influence and prerogatives in the last two decades. Thus governments rejecting the end of history with liberal capitalist globalization offer new (and continued) opportunities for the military to participate in social and economic development in ways far beyond the limited role prescribed by traditional liberal democratic theory. Both Avil?s' theoretical contributions and the empirical case studies will be valuable grist for the mill among researchers on civil-military relations in Latin America. - Brian Loveman, Author of No Higher Law: American Foreign Policy and the Western Hemisphere since 1776 (2010)

In this absorbing, five nation Andean study, William Avil?s reveals the unexpected: that governments in the midst of counter-insurgency wars will subordinate their militaries to civilian control while left wing populist governments will expand the powers and reach of their militariló#