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The Arab Security Sector: A New Research Agenda for a Neglected Topic
Oren Barak and Assaf David Armed Forces & Society 2010 36: 804 originally published online 24 November 2009 DOI: 10.1177/0095327X09344064 The online version of this article can be found at: http://afs.sagepub.com/content/36/5/804

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The Arab Security Sector : A New Research Agenda for a Neglected Topic
Oren Barak and Assaf David1

Armed Forces & Society 36(5) 804824 The Author(s) 2010 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0095327X09344064 http://afs.sagepub.com

Abstract This article discusses the lack of adequate attention to the Arab Security Sector and its complex political and social roles in the Arab States and presents the contours of a new research agenda for this topic. First, the authors demonstrate the insufficient scholarly attention accorded to the Arab Security Sector in several academic publications in the fields of Middle East Studies and Security Studies in the period 19902005. Second, they focus on three major areas where recent theoretical and comparative advances in the study of civilmilitary relations have not been paralleled in the study of the Arab Security Sector: (1) the role of the Arab Security Sector in the process of state formation; (2) informal connections between actors within the Arab Security Sector and actors operating in the political system; and (3) the role of the Arab Security Sector in reflecting and reinforcing patterns of intersectoral relations in the Arab States. Keywords security sector, military, state formation, Middle East, Arab states, Lebanon, Jordan

The Arab States, which are the majority of states in the contemporary Middle East, are characterized by a highly complex relationship between their security sector (the military and the other security agencies) and the state, politics, and society. Despite this fact, the Arab Security Sector has received inadequate scholarly attention in recent years, and the (very few) available works on this topic are only rarely informed by significant theoretical and comparative advances in the study of the security sector in general and the military in particular.
1

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Corresponding Author: Assaf David, Department of International Relations, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel Email: assafd@mscc.huji.ac.il

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The goal of this article is twofold: (1) to demonstrate the dearth of scholarly attention to the Arab Security Sector and its role in the state, politics, and society by examining the leading journals in the fields of Middle East Studies and Security Studies and the books published by major English and Arabic presses in the period 19902005; and (2) to present a new research agenda for the Arab Security Sector that draws on theoretical and comparative advances in the field of civilmilitary relations and is attentive to the above-mentioned roles, as well as to their interplay. Contrary to the common wisdom, we demonstrate that testing these theories with regard to the Arab Security Sector is both feasible and worthwhile. Three major themes that have received much attention in the theoretical and comparative literature on civilsecurity relations are currently absent (and, as shown below, have been so for some time) from the study of the Arab Security Sector: (1) the role of the security sector in the process of state formation, particularly as far as its sociocultural facets are concerned, and the impact of this role on the status and legitimacy of the security sector; (2) formal and informal connections between actors operating within the security sector, on one hand, and various civilian actors (chiefly from the political system), on the other; and (3) the role of the security sector in reflecting and reinforcing the relationship between the major sectors of society (e.g., ethnic groups, tribes, large families, geographical regions, gender groups). The changing interplay between all of these factors, too, remains understudied. It should be emphasized from the outset that a better acquaintance with the Arab Security Sector and its roles will not necessarily lead to more successful policies toward the Middle East. However, it may lead to more informed decision-making processes, especially at critical policy junctures. A good example is the United States decision to disband the Iraqi Army following the United Statesled invasion of Iraq in 2003.1 A better appreciation of the role of the Iraqi Army in the process of state formation could have resulted in a decision to reform this institution, which at the time, had about 350,000 troops. In addition, greater awareness of Iraqs complex politicalmilitary relationship could have led to the imposition of effectiveand not merely formal civilian control over the newly established Iraqi Security Forces, which have been penetrated by various militias (mostly Kurdish and Shiis). Finally, a deeper understanding of the relationship between the Iraqi Army and the pattern of intersectoral relations in the state could have suggested that replacing a military institution dominated by Sunni Arabs with one dominated by Kurds and Shiis would be liable to impinge not only on the legitimacy of the new security sector but also on that of the United Statessponsored nation-building project as a whole.2 This article first demonstrates the neglect of the Arab Security Sector in the period 19902005, an era of major developments not only in the Middle East and in the international system but also in the study of civilsecurity relations on both the theoretical and comparative levels. It then presents the contours of a new research agenda for the Arab Security Sector that applies current theoretical advances for studying its complex relationship with the state, politics, and society, as well as the interplay between these factors, and employs accessibleyet largely untappedprimary resources to explore these questions.

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Before proceeding further, however, it is worth explaining our decision to focus on the military (or the armed forces) and not on the other security agencies (e.g., internal security and intelligence agencies, police and paramilitary forces, border and coast guards, military industries), which together with the military, make up the security sector. In most states in the world, including the Arab States, the military is the primary security service in terms of its size, resources, roles, and association with the process of state formation. That said, we wish to emphasize that the other security agencies of the Arab States, and especially their internal security apparatuses, also deserve additional consideration, though it should be noted that these agencies covert activities and roles make them more difficult to study than the military.3

The Security Sector in the Arab States: A Neglected Topic

This section begins with a short description of the scholarship on the Arab Security Sector, and especially the military, until the early 1990s. We then discuss the main characteristics of the scholarly neglect of the Arab Security Sector in the period 1990 2005. Using manifest content analysis of articles published in nine prominent academic journals, and presenting a broad-brush survey of other relevant publications in English and Arabic, we demonstrate that the scholarly focus in this period was on armed conflicts, regional security, and military issues of non-Arab states of the Middle East, at the expense of civilsecurity relations in the Arab States.

The State of the Art until the 1990s

In the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, during the heyday of military coups in the Middle East, the Arab Security Sector ranked high on the agenda of the regions students. Yet even then, and in tandem with the prevailing theories in the social sciences, it was the political role of the Arab militaries that received the most attention, whereas their other roles and functions, especially in the process of state formation (e.g., promoting modernization and national integration), were viewed primarily through this lens.4 It was only later, after the IsraeliArab War in 1967 and the subsequent civilianization of the revolutionary regimes in Egypt, Iraq, and Syria, that more attention began to be accorded to the social, economic, and cultural roles and impacts of the Arab Security Sector. However, this new trend, which was later reinforced by the efforts to bring the state back in to the study of the Middle East,5 as well as by more critical works,6 did not lead to a notable expansion in the study of this topic. In fact, the opposite was the case. Since the late 1980s, students of the Middle East, and especially social scientists, have been preoccupied with two major issues: first, the largely economic and partially political liberalization in some Arab States (e.g., Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, the Gulf monarchies), which raised expectations of democratization according to the Latin American and East European models;7 second, the rise of political Islam, which was seen as the main challenge to the existing political and socioeconomic order in the

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Arab States (e.g., Egypt, Sudan, Algeria).8 Yet, despite the considerable impact of the Arab Security Sector on both of these spheresit was often the security agencies that forestalled the expansion of political participation in the Arab States and suppressed the Islamistsit remained understudied. Indeed, apart from a few exceptions (see below), new studies generally contented themselves with documenting the size, equipment, and technical capabilities of the Arab Security Sector, but without inquiring further into its complex relationship with the state, politics, and society.9

The Current State of Neglect

For the purposes of this study we have scanned numerous publications from the period 19902005 for items related to the security sector in the Middle East in general and the Arab Security Sector in particular. Thus, we were able to identify not only the notable gaps in the study of the Arab Security Sector but also the issues that were dealt with by the (few) contributions on this topic. First, we have surveyed in detail nine peer-reviewed journals, five in the field of Middle East Studies: International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES); Middle East Journal (MEJ); Middle Eastern Studies (MES); Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ); Middle East Quarterly (MEQ, established in 1994), and four in the field of Security Studies: Armed Forces & Society (AFS); International Security (IS); Security Dialogue (SD; established in 1992); Security Studies (SS; established in 1991). The survey included both research articles and review articles. Our conceptual framework consisted of three axes of analysis that differentiated between (1) the Arab Security Sector and the broader Middle East Security Sector (i.e., including Israel, Iran, and Turkey); (2) studies on armed conflicts in the Middle East, the strategic balance in the region, and armament and regional security, on one hand, and civilsecurity relations, on the other; and (3) three distinct groups of Arab States: those with significant military capabilities (Egypt, Syria, and Iraq before 2003), the economically well-to-do (and strategically important to the West) Gulf monarchies, and all others.10 Tables 1 and 2 present the percentage of articles on the Middle East Security Sector compared to other articles in the Security Studies journals and in the Middle East Studies journals, respectively. As can be seen clearly, the theoretical and comparative journals devoted fewer than 10 percent of their articles to the Middle Eastern Security Sector. This percentage was even smaller in the area studies journals, except for the Middle East Journal, which is the most policy-oriented among these publications. There is little doubt that the relatively small number of articles dealing with the Middle East Security Sector has fallen short of producing a sound body of knowledge on the contemporary Arab Security Sector. Indeed, tables 3 and 4 demonstrate that most authors who discussed this topic were preoccupied with past and present armed conflicts and armament and regional security issues in the Middle East, whereas the patterns of civilsecurity relations in the regions states have received meager attention. In fact, of all the journals surveyed, only Armed Forces & Society paid more attention to the latter topic, but it was Israel that received the most attention.11 Indeed,

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Table 1. Focus of Articles in Security Studies Journals, 19902005 Focus (in percentages) Journal Armed Forces & Society International Security Security Dialogue Security Studies Not Dealing with Middle East Security Sector 91 95 95 92 Dealing with Middle East Security Sector 9 5 5 8 N 402 413 419 349

Table 2. Focus of Articles in Middle East Studies Journals, 19902005 Focus (in percentages) Journal International Journal of Middle East Studies Middle East Journal Middle Eastern Studies Arab Studies Quarterly Middle East Quarterly Not Dealing with Middle East Security Sector 97.0 87.5 94.0 99.3 96.5 Dealing with Middle East Security Sector 3.0 12.5 6.0 0.7 3.5 N 344 351 599 287 323

Table 3. Topics of Articles on Middle East Security Sector in Security Studies Journals Topic (in percentages) Conflict, Armament, and Regional Security 23.0 94.5 85.0 93.0 CivilMilitary Relations Israel 51 7 Turkey 17 10 Iran 3 5 Arab States 6.0 5.5 N 35 18 20 28

Journal Armed Forces & Society International Security Security Dialogue Security Studies

when comparing the non-Arab states in the Middle East to the Arab States, it emerges very clearly that the former are studied much more than the latter, even in the few publications that focus on civilsecurity relations in the Middle East. Table 5 completes the gloomy picture: of the mere eighteen articles that focus on the Arab Security Sector in all journals, two-thirds either are comparative studies or focus on

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Table 4. Topics of Articles on Middle East Security Sector in Middle East Studies Journals Topic (in percentages) Conflict, Armament, and Regional Security 45.0 70.5 69.5 50.0 81.0 CivilMilitary Relations Israel 18.0 4.0 5.5 Turkey 9.0 2.0 13.5 Iran 9 2 8 Arab States 18.0 20.5 2.5 50.0 19.0

809

Journal International Journal of Middle East Studies Middle East Journal Middle Eastern Studies Arab Studies Quarterly Middle East Quarterly

N 11 44 37 2 11

Table 5. Topics of Articles on Arab Security Sector in All Journals Topic (in percentages) Journal Armed Forces & Society International Security Security Dialogue Security Studies International Journal of Middle East Studies Middle East Journal Middle Eastern Studies Arab Studies Quarterly Middle East Quarterly Comparative 100 50 11 Egypt, Iraq, Syria 50 22 100 GCC States 11 100 100 Other Arab States 100 55 N 2 1 0 0 2 9 1 1 2

GCC = Gulf Cooperation Council; includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman.

the militarily or economically potent Arab States. All other Arab militaries were addressed by only one-third of the total articles, which amounts to as few as seven articles. Three important conclusions emerge from these results. First, little scholarly attention has been accorded to the Middle East Security Sector in general and to the Arab Security Sector in particular throughout the period under discussion. Second, global, regional, and state-to-state dimensions significantly outweighed the domestic ones, and especially the patterns of civilsecurity relations in the regions states. Third, the militarily or economically potent Arab States received much more attention than all others. A glance at other academic publications from this period yields similar results. Of the many hundreds of books dealing with Middle East Studies and Security Studies,

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only a few dozen focus exclusively or partly on the Middle East Security Sector. More specifically, these books address the military balance in the region, the Arab armies military ineffectiveness, the ArabIsraeli wars and Gulf security, and the arms race and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation in the region. In addition, only a handful of books adopt a regional perspective toward the militaries of the Middle East or apply theoretical insights from relevant social science disciplines in order to study them.12 Again, Israel is the most popular case for researchers,13 whereas Turkey and even more so Iran lag far behind. It should be emphasized that the number of academic books devoted exclusively to the Arab Security Sector in this period is markedly low, and this pattern continues to this day, notwithstanding a few books published very recently.14 The Adelphi Papers series, published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, conforms to this trend: of 147 publications from the period 1990 200715 only twelve (about 8 percent) deal with the Middle East Security Sector, and of these, two are on the Gulf States, two on Turkey, and two on Afghanistan, while Israel, Pakistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia are each discussed by one publication. The remaining two Adelphi Papers provide a regional approach to the Arab Security Sector.16 The scholarly neglect of the Arab Security Sector is even more evident in Arabic publications. Generally speaking, there are numerous Arabic translations of books on Arab and non-Arab military issues from other languages, mainly English and Hebrew, whereas original Arabic publications deal with quite different topics. Our survey of one of the largest online Arabic libraries, An-Neel wal-Furat, has yielded fewer than 450 titles under the general classification Military Science, compared to approximately 1,800 titles classified as Political Studies (one of the twelve subclassifications of Politics).17 Nearly half of these 450 titles are translations from English and Hebrew and include professional and technical dictionaries, guides and textbooks, The Middle East Strategic Balance, books on the Israeli army and civilmilitary relations in Israel, and books on Western armies (chiefly the United States). The other half, which includes original contributions, deals mostly with military history and militarism in the golden age of Islam, whereas military history of the ArabIsraeli conflict, the world wars, and the Gulf wars ranks second. Of the few dozens of Arabic books dealing directly with the Arab Security Sector, there are a number of books on the Arab military industries and on the Lebanese and the Iraqi armies, though not on other Arab militaries.18 The Arab Unity Research Center in Beirut, the well-known institute for Arab social science research, which seems to be the best place to search for up-to-date studies on the Arab Security Sector, confirms these findings. The centers updated catalog, which includes about 590 titles dating back to the early 1980s, lists around twenty books that deal with the security sector in the Middle East.19 Among these books, about twothirds deal with Iraq, WMD, and the ArabIsraeli warsand only five deal directly with the Arab Security Sector.20 Shaker al-Nabulsis book, The Rise of the Arab Militarist Society in Egypt and Syria, 19482000 (Beirut, 2003), epitomizes the paucity of Arabic contributions on

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the Arab Security Sector. Rather than a detailed study of this topic, the book is actually an Arab liberal intellectuals reflections on it. Indeed, though Nabulsi aims to present a critical account of the Arab military mentality and of the characteristics of the Arab regimes as a special kind of social organization,21 he does not employ the abundant resources in Arabic that are available on Arab civilsecurity relations (see below) but instead relies on largely outdated Arabic books on the Arab militaries and a few journalistic accounts of Arab militarism. To conclude, our examination of articles published in academic journals and scholarly books in English and Arabic in the period 19902005 suggests that the modest attention accorded to the Middle East Security Sector focused mainly on strategic and war-related aspects rather than on the regions patterns of civilsecurity relations. Moreover, existing works favor the non-Arab states, and among the few relevant publications on the Arab States, it is those states with sizable militaries or economic wealth that receive the most attention. Even when considering the obvious constraints facing Arab scholars interested in the Arab Security Sector, one is struck by the almost total indifference to this topic in Arabic publications. The dearth of up-to-date scholarly works on the Arab Security Sector suggests that its relationship with the state, politics, and society is either insignificant or greatly underappreciated. As mentioned earlier, both the historical record and recent events point to the latter option.

A New Research Agenda for the Arab Security Sector

In the remainder of this article we present the contours of a new research agenda for the Arab Security Sector that (1) asks new questions that are informed by recent theoretical and comparative studies on civilsecurity relations and (2) suggests how to use the vast primary and secondary sources that are currently available to researchers but are more often than not overlookedin order to advance the study of this topic. In particular, this new research agenda is attentive to the dynamic relationship between the Arab Security Sector, the state, politics, and society, as well as to the complex interlinkages between these three dimensions. In the next sections, we discuss this relationship and its various facets, pointing out the major issues that need to be addressed and the sources that can be employed for this purpose.

The Arab Security Sector and the State

The first topic that deserves more scholarly attention from students of the Arab Security Sector is the role of its agencies, and especially the military, in the process of state formation in the Arab States and the impact of this role on the legitimacy of the security sector. Recent decades have seen a surge in the study of the process of state formation and its major facets, or subprocesses: (1) state-building, that is, measures that produce territorial consolidation, centralization, differentiation of the instruments of government,

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and monopolization of the means of coercion;22 (2) statecraft (or state construction), which is the enhancement of the states power and authority by an array of informal, including cultural, means;23 and (3) national integration (or nation-building), which connotes centrally based efforts to invest the states populace with a common national identity.24 The pivotal role played by the military in this process, too, has been emphasized.25 Although some studies on the Arab Security Sector discuss its role in the process of state formation, their emphasis is, more often than not, on its coercive aspects (i.e., what we refer to as state-building). Quite expectedly, their conclusion is that unlike other regions of the world, the relationship between war making and state making in the Middle East, the Arab States included, has not been dialectical on account of the tremendous costs of the regions armed conflicts and the fact that much of the resources mobilized for this purpose (e.g., weapons, ammunition, spare parts) had originated from outside the region.26 We suggest, by contrast, that the role of the Arab Security Sector in the process of state formation can be comprehended in full only if one also examines its sociocultural aspects. This topic has, thus far, received limited attention despite the fact that since independence, the Arab Security Sector has made considerable efforts to construct itself as an autonomous actor vis--vis society not only through routine practices such as military drills and exercises but also by performing in emergencies. In addition, the Arab Security Sector has continuously sought to elicit popular identification by disseminating national myths, symbols, and official historical narratives not only among its personnel but also in society at large.27 One can now ask whether the efforts of the Arab Security Sector in this respect were, at all, successful. Although it is difficult to provide a definite answer, it is worth remembering that the Arab security agenciesespecially the militaryhave, since independence, conscripted millions of citizens and thus had an opportunity to shape their perceptions and, ultimately, their identity.28 As can be expected, some of these efforts have elicited criticism by opposition groups and members of various societal sectors (e.g., ethnic groups, clans, tribes) who claimed that their particular identities were encroached on.29 However, this phenomenon is not unique to the Arab States, and in any case, the efforts made by the Arab Security Sector in this regard, as well as the response of its critics, are both topics worthy of investigation. An excellent resource for studying the role of the Arab Security Sector in the sociocultural aspects of the process of state formation, which is only rarely tapped by students, is the official bulletins of the Arab security agencies.30 These publications, which in some cases have appeared for many decadesthe bulletin of the Lebanese Army, al-Jundi al-Lubnani, for example, began to appear in 1942, that is, before Lebanons independenceoffer a wealth of information on the history, structure, personnel, and activities of the Arab Security Sector. At the same time, these bulletins suggest how the Arab Security Sector has perceived its identity, mission, and tasks and how it has sought to project this image to domestic and external audiences. The Lebanese Army, for example, has traditionally used its bulletin to portray itself as a national

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melting pot for members of the various sectors of Lebanese society.31 Another telling example is al-Aqsa, the bulletin of the Jordanian Army, which began to appear in 1969 as a daily newspaper and became a monthly in 1986. This publication has been explicitly committed to disseminating a proper education and national consciousness among Jordans citizens.32 In addition to the official bulletins and other publications of the Arab Security Sector, which range from orientation bulletins to quasi-academic journals on security affairs,33 recent years have seen a considerable rise in the number of Internet Web sites operated by the Arab security agencies that perform similar functions. Some Web sites, such as those of the Jordanian and Lebanese armies and Lebanons Internal Security Forces,34 document their past and present achievements, commemorate their past commanders and fallen personnel, and highlight their contribution to the wellbeing of the state in ordinary times, in emergencies (e.g., fires, snowstorms, epidemics), and during domestic crises. In addition, some Web sites provide daily summaries of press items on the Arab Security Sector.35 There are even private Web sites of former military officials, such as the one that commemorates General Mashhoor Haditheh, former chief of staff of the Jordanian Army, which is operated by his family.36 The New Arab Media, which includes Arab satellite TV channels, Internet Web sites and forums, and the blogosphere, presents the Arab Security Sector with new kinds of challenges to its legitimacy, particularly from civil society groups.37 As a response, some Arab security agencies have began to publish denunciations of offensive remarks made by political leaders, media outlets, and independent Web sites.38 Some, such as the Lebanese Army, have even organized meetings with media reporters in which their leadership emphasized that support of the security agencies by civil society in general and the media in particular was crucial to preserving domestic stability.39 The Arab Security Sectors growing awareness of its public image was demonstrated in 2006, when the head of the Morale Guidance Division of the Jordanian Army published a book devoted entirely to these issues.40 In sum, students of the Arab Security Sector have yet to fully grasp its role in the process of state formation, and particularly in its sociocultural facets. This necessitates not only a broader research agenda that would be attentive to the security agencies roles in these realms but also the systematic use of relevant resources that, as we demonstrated earlier, are becoming more and more accessible to researchers.

The Arab Security Sector and Politics

A second topic that deserves more scholarly attention is the informal connections between acting and retired Arab security officials, on one hand, and various actors operating within the political systems of the Arab States, on the other. These informal interactions, which are very common in the non-Western regions,41 defy the separation into distinct civilian and security spheres that is found in the established states of North America and Western Europe.42

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In view of the continued existence and impact of these informal connections and interactions, more attention should be given to the following questions: (1) What is the best way to comprehend and conceptualize this phenomenon? (2) How should the overall political, social, economic, and discursive impact of this phenomenon be identified and assessed? Existing studies on civiliansecurity relations in the Arab States generally regard this relationship as static,43 and only rarely stress its dynamic and constantly changing nature.44 Ideally, a new research agenda for this relationship would draw on the following general theoretical advances: (1) studies on the impact of informal policy networks in the realm of national security;45 (2) studies on epistemic communities that are composed of experts who share a common understanding of the scientific and political nature of particular problems and whose influence on policymakers, especially under conditions of uncertainty, derives from the fact that they are considered to be authorities in specific issues, that is, security;46 (3) studies that treat security not as an objective concept but, rather, as the outcome of a social process called securitization whereby threats in general (and especially existential threats) become represented and recognized;47 (4) studies on Security Sector Reform, which ask how to build more efficient and effective security agencies that are accountable to the civilian government.48 On the comparative level, too, important insights can be gleaned from juxtaposing the patterns of civilsecurity relations that exist in the Arab States with those that emerged in other regions, and especially in Asia, Africa, and Latin America (and, to an extent, in Eastern Europe during the Cold War). This is because in these other regions, the impact of informal aspects of the civilsecurity interface has been underlined as well.49 As to the second question, studying informal civilsecurity interactions in the Arab States, as elsewhere, is an onerous task. However, the Arab press and the New Arab Media allow students of the Arab Security Sector to employ at least some of the aforementioned general theories and, occasionally, to develop them further.50 The establishment of formal institutions in the Arab States that train senior security officers along with civilian officials, such as the Royal Academy of National Defence in Jordan, which receives regular press coverage, is only one example of new venues that encourage informal civilsecurity interactions and at the same time are open to academic scrutiny.51 Moreover, there are some accessible official documentsnot of the Arab States but, rather, of international organizationsthat cast light on such informal interactions and their impact. A telling example is the report of the International Independent Investigation Commission established by the United Nations Security Council to look into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri in 2005. Among others, the report revealed the existence of an informal network composed of high-ranking Syrian and Lebanese security officials and other actors that sought to preserve its predominant position in Lebanon by eliminating its opponents.52 Other useful sources are reports published by Human Rights Watch and other international organizations that deal with human rights issues in the Arab States. In states such as Jordan, which are relatively open to these organizations activities, these

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reports, which are based, among other things, on interviews with top security officials, provide invaluable insights regarding the security mindset and the impact of the international community on decision-making processes in the areas of public security and human rights.53 As for the Arab media (both old and new), a recent study, which examines the medias perception of the Arab militaries during the war between Israel and Hizbullah in 2006, reveals heated public debates over security-related issues such as military expenditures in the Arab States, the national role of the Arab militaries, the activity and grievances of retired Arab security personnel, and even the prospects of military coups in the Arab States.54 Also worth mentioning are independent Internet Web sites that provide up-to-date information on Arab security issues from a critical (though not necessarily a nonpartisan) perspective.55 All these interesting developments are only rarely noted by scholars working on the Arab Middle East. In sum, by identifying the informal ties between acting and retired security officials and political actors and by assessing the overall impact of this factor on policy making and actual policies in the Arab States, and especially in the realm of security, students of the Arab Security Sector can move beyond the notion of distinct and separate security and political sphereswhich in many new states remains a coveted goaland provide a more accurate account of the actual situation in this respect. In addition, more attention to the informal aspects of the civilsecurity relationship in the Arab States can foster better appreciation of different kinds of tacit arrangements and understandings between the security sector and members of civil society, the business sector, and the media, as well as greater awareness of the impact of this factor in preserving existing political, social, and economic realities in these states.56

The Arab Security Sector and Society

Many states in the Middle East, including most Arab States, are also divided societies that are composed of different ethnic groups (or communities), tribes, large families (or clans), and geographical regions. This factor raises the interesting question of whether the security sector and the general pattern of civilsecurity relations in these states reflect and reinforce their intersectoral power relations.57 Yet, apart from one study that touches on this issue when trying to explain the robustness of the authoritarian regimes in the Arab Middle East,58 little effort has been made to systematically explore this question and, moreover, to identify continuity and change in this regard. The result of this omission is a semblance of historical continuity in the Arab States that is not supported by fresh evidence but, rather, by the continued reliance on largely outdated works. Authors writing on Jordan, for instance, continue to cite studies and documents from the British colonial period (19221946) and books such as P. J. Vatikiotiss Politics and the Military in Jordan (1967) when discussing Jordans current pattern of civilmilitary relations.59 At the same time, no attempt has been made to use media resources, memoirs of relevant actors, the bulletin of the Jordanian Army, and the official gazette in order to present a more up-to-date account of this topic and

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to highlight important developments such as the reintroduction of national conscription in Jordan,60 as well as the public debate surrounding it, both of which have passed practically unnoticed by outside observers. We contend that this topic, too, can be addressed through the systematic use of numerous primary resources such as those mentioned earlier. At the same time, scholars can rely on general theoretical and comparative studies that address the profound changes that have taken place in the civilsecurity interface since the end of the Cold War, including changes in the relationship between the security sector and society. These include: (1) the postmodern military, which is characterized, among other things, by the inclusion in the military of societal sectors (e.g., women, homosexuals, minorities) that were previously excluded from, or marginalized within, the security sector;61 (2) representativeness and diversity in the security sector;62 and (3) power-sharing arrangements in the security sector, both generally and in postconflict settings.63 Indeed, more attention to these issues will enable us to better comprehend the complex relationship between the security sector and society in the Arab States, especially in periods of conflict and political change. In Iraq, for instance, Arab Sunnis had dominated the security sector until the United Statesled invasion in 2003, whereas Kurds and Shiis have dominated the Iraqi Security Forces established in its aftermath. This factor may explain why the security sector in Iraq elicited apprehension and distrust from significant segments of its society both before and after the removal of Saddam Hussein and the Baath regime. In Lebanon, by contrast, the security sector (especially the Lebanese Army) has successfully transformed from an institution dominated by the Christian communities (especially Maronites) into one that is shared by all societal sectors. In fact, the introduction of power sharing in the Lebanese Army, which included the creation of a more balanced officer corps, the installment of power sharing in the armys command and in the controlling civilian bodies, and efforts to reach consensus on identity, missions, and tasks for the army, has not only enhanced the legitimacy of this institution itself but also had a positive impact on political reforms in Lebanon.64 In sum, the relationship between the security sector and the states pattern of intersectoral relations deserves more scholarly attention. As we have shown, there are numerous sources that, when employed systematically, can yield important insights that are relevant not only to the Arab States but also to others in the Middle East and beyond, which exhibit high levels of social heterogeneity. In addition, and in line with general theoretical developments, more attention to this topic can help unpack the complex relationship between the Arab Security Sector and gender relations in the Arab States.65

The Role of the Arab Security Sector in the State, Politics, and Society
Based on the foregoing discussion, we now present several questions for future research concerning the possible interlinkages between the various roles of the Arab Security Sector in the state, politics, and society in the Arab States.

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The first type of questions concern possible linkage between the role of the Arab Security Sector in the state and the political system: (1) Does the role of the security sector in the process of state formation (broadly defined) empower the security sector vis--vis other political actors in the state? (2) Does the successful role of the security sector as a political broker and/or as a securitizing agent enhance its role in the process of state formation? The second type of questions relate to the possible linkage between the roles of the Arab Security Sector in the state and in society: (3) Can the successful role of the security sector in the process of state formation enhance its legitimacy in divided societies and, perhaps, help ameliorate tensions between their various societal sectors? (4) Does the fact that the security sector reflects and reinforces existing patterns of intersectoral relations in the state affect its state formation efforts and its legitimacy? The third and last set of questions involves the possible connection between the role of the Arab Security Sector in politics and in society: (5) Does the role of the security sector in politics (alone or with other actors) affect the pattern of intersectoral relations in divided societies? (6) Do tensions between the various sectors of divided societies affect the security sectors ability to play a meaningful political role in the state? These interesting questionsand numerous otherscan be addressed by employing general theories on the relationship between the security sector and the state, politics, and society, and through the systematic use of the abundant primary sources on the Arab Security Sector that are available to researchers but have been largely overlooked in recent decades.

Conclusion
Despite the fact that the security sector in the Arab States plays a significant role in the state, politics, and society, this topic has suffered relative scholarly neglect in recent years. The result of this omission is that our understanding of important developments in the Arab States and in the Middle East in general is severely impaired. Indeed, the disbanding of the Iraqi Army in 2003 and its repercussions clearly demonstrate that the lack of adequate attention to the Arab Security Sector is, by no means, a purely academic matter. In an effort to address this serious gap in the study of the Arab Security Sector, this article has presented the contours of a new research agenda that focuses on its role in the state, politics, and society, as well as on the possible interlinkages between these roles. As we have suggested, important theoretical and comparative advances in the social sciences encourage us to ask new questions about the Arab Security Sector and the various roles it has come to play in the process of state formation, with an emphasis on its sociocultural aspects. At the same time, the Arab Security Sector itself, or networks composed of acting and retired security officials and their political partners, ought to be studied as a major factor that shapes policy making and actual policies in

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the Arab States. Finally, the Arab Security Sector reflects and helps reinforce existing patterns of intersectoral relations in those Arab States that are divided societies, and this topic, too, deserves more scholarly attention. As to the question of the sources that are available for the study of the Arab Security Sector, we have demonstrated that the objective difficulties in studying this topic, such as limited access to resources, censorship, and harassment of scholars, can be overcome at least in part through the systematic use of ostensibly trivial material such as the official bulletins of the security agencies, their Internet Web sites, and other primary sources that are available to researchers through the New Arab Media and other outlets. Acknowledgements
The authors thank Eyal Ben-Ari, Avraham Sela, the editor of Armed Forces & Society, and the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments on earlier drafts of this article.

Authors Note
The authors contributed equally to this article and should be considered as cofirst authors.

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

The authors declared that they had no conflicts of interest with respect to their authorship or the publication of this article.

Financial Disclosure/Funding
The authors disclosed that they received the following support for their research and/or authorship of this article: The Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Notes
1. C. Tripp, The United States and State-Building in Iraq, Review of International Studies 30, 4 (October 2004): 545-58; J. Fallows, Why Iraq Has No Army, Atlantic Monthly (December 2005). See http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200512/iraq-army (accessed November 10, 2008); O. Barak, Dilemmas of Security in Iraq, Security Dialogue 38, 4 (December 2007): 455-75. 2. On the Iraqi Army before 2003, see E. Picard, Arab Military in Politics: From Revolutionary Plot to Authoritarian State, in The Arab State, ed. G. Luciani (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), pp. 189-219; I. Al-Marashi, The Family, Clan, and Tribal Dynamics of Saddams Security and Intelligence Network, International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence 16, 2 (Summer 2003): 202-11; A. Hashim, Saddam Hussein and CivilMilitary Relations in Iraq: The Quest for Legitimacy and Power, Middle East Journal 57, 1 (Winter 2003): 9-41. 3. On the impact of civilian security agencies on civilmilitary relations in democratizing states, see A. Forster, New CivilMilitary Relations and Its Research Agendas (Geneva:

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4.

5.

6. 7.

8.

9. 10. 11.

12.

13.

14.

Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces, 2002). While less accessible to public scrutiny, the Arab internal security agencies also contribute to the endurance of Arab authoritarianism. D. Rustow, The Military in Middle Eastern Society and Politics (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1963); S. Fisher, ed., The Military in the Middle East (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1963); J. C. Hurewitz, Middle East Politics: The Military Dimension (New York: Praeger, 1969); E. Beeri, Army Officers in Arab Politics and Society (New York: Praeger, 1970); G. Haddad, Revolutions and Military Rule in the Middle East (New York: Speller, 1971). G. Ben-Dor, State, Society and Military Elites in the Middle East (Tel Aviv: Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Tel Aviv University, 1984); Picard, Arab Military in Politics; N. Ayubi, Over-Stating the Arab State (London: Tauris, 1995). T. Mitchell, The Limits of the State: Beyond Statist Approaches and Their Critics, American Political Science Review 85, 1 (March 1991): 77-96. A. R. Norton, ed., Civil Society in the Middle East (Leiden: Brill, 1994); B. Korany, R. Brynen, and P. Noble, eds. Political Liberalization and Democratization in the Arab World (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1995); M. Pripstein Posusney and M. Penner Angrist, eds. Authoritarianism in the Middle East (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2005). E. Sivan, Radical Islam (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990); J. Esposito, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality? (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1992); O. Roy, The Failure of Political Islam (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995); O. Roy, Globalised Islam (London: Hurst, 2004). See A. H. Cordesman, The Military Balance in the Middle East (Westport, Conn.: Praeger); The Middle East Military Balance (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press) Since we deal only with sovereign states, we have not considered the security agencies of the Palestinian National Authority in the Palestinian Territories. Notably, Israeli authors rank second among all authors in the number of articles they have published in Armed Forces & Society compared to very few authors from other Middle Eastern countries. See Morten Ender, Authorship and Affiliation in Armed Forces and Society: Volumes 1-25, Armed Forces & Society 27, 4 (Summer 2001): 623-38. S. Heydemann, ed., War, Institutions, and Social Change in the Middle East (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000); R. Owen, State, Power, and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2000), chap. 10. See, for example, U. Ben-Eliezer, The Making of Israeli Militarism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998); E. Lomsky-Feder and E. Ben-Ari, eds., The Military and Militarism in Israeli Society (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999); E. Ben-Ari, Z. Rosenhak, and D. Maman, eds., The Military, State and Society in Israel (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2001). Steven Cook, Ruling but Not Governing (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007); Shuja Nawaz, Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2008). In the series Middle Eastern Military Studies published by Routledge, for example, only one of the five books published thus far deals with the Arab Security Sector: I. Al-Marashi and S. Salama, Iraqs Armed Forces (London: Routledge, 2008).

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15. See http://www.iiss.org/publications/adelphi-papers/full-list-of-adelphi-papers (accessed June 2, 2008). 16. Y. Sayigh, Confronting the 1990s: Security in the Developing Countries (London: International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1990); R. Brooks, PoliticalMilitary Relations and the Stability of Arab Regimes (London: International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1998). 17. See http://www.neelwafurat.com/browse.aspx?ddmsubject=24&search=books (accessed June 2, 2008). 18. Understandably, since 2003 the history of the Iraqi Army has been a popular topic for Arab writers, including several retired Iraqi generals. See, for example, the autobiography of former General Raed al-Hamadani, Before History Departs Us (Beirut: ad-Dar al-Arabiyyah lil-Ulum, 2007). Seven chapters of the book appeared in the leading Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi, March 6-13, 2006. 19. See http://www.caus.org.lb/Home/contents1.php?id=34 (accessed June 2, 2008). 20. These are M. Hammad, Arab Military Men and the Question of Unity (1987); T. A. Musallam, Arab Military Cooperation (1990); Y. Sayigh, The Arab Military Industry (1992); A. al-Fares, Guns and Butter: Military Expenditure in the Arab Countries, 1970-1990 (1993). See also the proceedings of the conference on Military, Politics and State in the Arab Countries (Beirut: the Arab Unity Research Center, 2002). 21. Al-Nabulsi, Rise of Arab Militarist Society, 10-11. 22. C. Tilly, Reflections on the History of European State-Making, in The Formation of National States in Western Europe, ed. C. Tilly (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975), pp. 3-83; M. Mann, The Autonomous Power of the State: Its Origins, Mechanisms and Results, in States in History, ed. J. Hall (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1986), pp. 109-136. 23. M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish, trans. A. Sheridan (New York: Vintage, 1979); Mitchell, Limits of the State; G. Steinmetz, ed., State/Culture (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999). 24. E. Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1983); E. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990); B. Anderson, Imagined Communities, 2nd ed. (New York: Verso, 1991). 25. For the militarys role in state-building, see S. Finer, State- and Nation-Building in Europe: The Role of the Military, in Tilly, Formation of National States, pp. 84-163. For its role in state construction, see Foucault, Discipline and Punish; Mitchell, Limits of the State. For its role in national integration, see G. Mosse, Fallen Soldiers (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1990); R. Krebs, Fighting for Rights (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006); D. Zirker, C. P. Danopoulos, and A. Simpson, The Military as a Distinct Ethnic or Quasi-Ethnic Identity in Developing Countries, Armed Forces & Society 34, 2 (January 2008): 314-37. 26. See, for example, T. Gongora, War Making and State Power in the Contemporary Middle East, International Journal of Middle East Studies 29, 3 (August 1997): 323-40; G. Srensen, War and State Making: Why Doesnt It Work in the Third World? Security Dialogue 32, 3 (September 2001): 341-54. 27. See, for example, O. Barak, Commemorating Malikiyya: Political Myth, Multiethnic Identity and the Making of the Lebanese Army, History & Memory 13, 1 (Spring/Summer

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28.

29.

30.

31. 32. 33. 34.

35. 36. 37.

38.

39.

2001): 60-84; A. Terrill, The Political Mythology of the Battle of Karameh, Middle East Journal 55, 1 (Winter 2001): 91-111. Places where this impact can be gauged are the numerous autobiographies published by retired Lebanese officers. See, for example, F. Lahoud, The Tragedy of the Lebanese Army (Baabdat, 1976); R. Taqi al-Din, An Army Revived, 1988-1994 (Beirut, 1998); A. Lahad, In the Eye of the Storm (Haifa: Maktabat Kul Shay 2003). Indeed, even officers who were highly critical of their political and military leaders took pride in their military service. See, for example, S. Kheirallah, Memoirs (Beirut: Dar al-Jadid, 1990). In recent years retired army officers from other Arab States (e.g., Jordan, post-2003 Iraq) have also began to publish their memoirs. K. Salih, State-Making, Nation-Building and the Military: Iraq, 1941-1958 (Goteborg: Department of Political Science, Goteborg University, 1996); L. Wedeen, Ambiguities of Domination (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999); J. Massad, Colonial Effects (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001). A rare example is F. Khury, The Study of CivilMilitary Relations in Modernizing Societies in the Middle East: A Critical Assessment, in Soldiers, Peasants, and Bureaucrats: CivilMilitary Relations in Communist and Modernizing Societies, eds. R. Kolkowicz and A. Korbonski (London: Allen & Unwin, 1982), pp. 9-27. See also H. Frisch, The Role of Religion in the Militaries of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, Orient 43, 2 (June 2002): 207-24. For details, see O. Barak, The Lebanese Army: A National Institution in a Divided Society (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2009). Al-Aqsa 808 (November 1989). See, for example, the Lebanese National Defense Magazine (est. 1990), which publishes essays and research articles in Arabic, English, and French. In Lebanon, each security service operates its own Web site. The armys Web site is www .lebarmy.gov.lb and the ISF Web site is http://www.isf.gov.lb. The Public Security Department (PSD) in Jordan also operates its own Web site, http://www.psd.gov.jo, while the Web site of the Jordanian Army, http://www.jaf.mil.jo, offers a valuable official historiography and provides details on civilmilitary cooperation in Jordan. See, for example, the daily summary of press reports at the Web site of the Lebanese Army, at http://www.lebarmy.gov.lb/Mawkaf.asp. See http://www.mashhoorhaditheh.com. For details, see A. David and O. Barak, How the New Arab Media Challenges the Arab Militaries: The Case of the War between Israel and Hizbullah in 2006, Policy Brief no. 20 (Washington, DC: Middle East Institute, 2008), at http://www.mideasti.org/files/NewArab-Media.pdf (accessed December 7, 2008). See, for example, the detailed and documented response of the Jordanian Army to the allegations made about its role in the 1948 War in the popular TV drama King Faruq (2007) published in the November 2007 issue of al-Aqsa. The Lebanese Army, too, responds to unfavorable media reports. See, for example, its denial that some of its officers resigned during the clashes in May 2008, at http://www.lebarmy.gov.lb/article.asp?ln=ar&id=18300 (accessed May 29, 2008). See http://www.lebarmy.gov.lb/article.asp?ln=ar&id=19666 (accessed October 7, 2008).

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40. M. K. al-Raqqad, The Jordanian Military Media (Amman: Jordanian Army Headquarters, 2006; in Arabic). 41. See R. Luckham, Democratic Strategies for Security in Transition and Conflict, in Governing Insecurity, eds. G. Cawthra and R. Luckham (London: Zed, 2003), pp. 3-28. 42. For a useful discussion of Western patterns of civilmilitary relations, see J. Burk, Theories of Democratic CivilMilitary Relations, Armed Forces & Society 29, 1 (Fall 2002): 7-29. It is noteworthy that in the 1960s and early 1970s, theories of civilmilitary relations in Western states were readily applied to the new states, including in the Middle East. See A. R. Luckham, A Comparative Typology of CivilMilitary Relations, Government and Opposition 6, 1 (January 1971): 5-35; M. Janowitz, Military Institutions and Coercion in the Developing Nations (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977). A study that identifies these informal connections in non-Western and Western states is R. Schiff, Civil Military Relations Reconsidered: A Theory of Concordance, Armed Forces & Society 22, 1 (Fall 1995): 7-24. 43. Cf. Hurewitz, Middle East Politics; Beeri, Army Officers; Ben-Dor, State, Society and Military Elites; Ayubi, Over-Stating the Arab State. 44. See especially Owen, State, Power and Politics. 45. D. Marsh and M. Smith, Understanding Policy Networks: Towards a Dialectical Approach, Political Studies 48, 1 (March 2000): 4-21. For a study that applies this concept to Israels pattern of civilsecurity relations, see O. Barak and G. Sheffer, Israels Security Network and Its Impact: An Exploration of a New Approach, International Journal of Middle East Studies 38, 2 (May 2006): 235-61. 46. P. Haas, Introduction: Epistemic Communities and International Policy Coordination, in Knowledge, Power and International Policy Coordination, ed. P. Haas (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1997), 1-35; E. Adler, Communitarian International Relations (New York: Routledge, 2005). 47. B. Buzan, O. Waever, and J. De Wilde, Security (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998); M. Williams, Words, Images, Enemies: Securitization and International Politics, International Studies Quarterly 47, 4 (December 2003): 511-31. See also O. Barak and G. Sheffer, eds., Existential Threats and CivilSecurity Relations (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, forthcoming). 48. T. T. Holm & E. B. Eide, eds., Peacebuilding and Police Reform (London: Frank Cass, 2000); C. Ferguson, Police Reform, Peacekeeping and SSR: The Need for Closer Synthesis, Journal of Security Sector Management 2, 3 (September 2004): 1-13. Relevant studies on the Arab Security Sector are: Y. Sayigh, Security Sector Reform in the Arab Region: Challenges to Developing an Indigenous Agenda (2007), at http://www.arab-reform.net/IMG/ pdf/Thematic_Study_SSR_Yezid_Sayigh.pdf (accessed May 29, 2008); E. Laipson, Prospects for Middle East Security-Sector Reform, Survival 49, 2 (Summer 2007): 99-110. 49. See A. Stepan, Rethinking Military Politics: Brazil and the Southern Cone (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988); Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner, eds., Civil Military Relations and Democracy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996); Muthia Alagappa, ed., Coercion and Governance: The Declining Political Role of the Military in Asia (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001).

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50. One example is a recent study that examines the unfolding of the securitization of the Iranian threat in Jordan in the period 20062007. Using discourse analysis methods, it describes the critical role of Jordans civil society in rejecting securitization from above and stresses the importance of visual images and cultural aspects in securitization from below. A. David, From Islamic Iran to Shiite Persia: Elite, Public Opinion and the Securitization of Iran in Jordan after the Second Lebanon War, paper presented at the conference on Continuous Existential Threats and CivilSecurity Relations: The Israeli Case in Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives, Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, March 2008. 51. See, for example, Jordan News Agency, January 17, 2006. 52. See http://www.un.org/News/dh/docs/mehlisreport (accessed May 29, 2008). 53. For examples of such reports on the Middle East and North Africa, see http://www.hrw.org/ en/middle-east/n-africa. 54. David and Barak, How the New Arab Media Challenges the Arab Militaries. 55. See, for example, the Web site Youkal.net, at http://youkal.net/ar (accessed December 4, 2008). In Arabic yukal means rumor has it but the Web sites name also relates to YouTube. 56. According to one of these tacit understandings, the Arab militaries stand above the political discourse, and their repressive measures against the special threat posed by radical Islamic movements does not result in the loss of their domestic legitimacy or their international support. See E. Bellin, Coercive Institutions and Coercive Leaders, in Posusney and Angrist, Authoritarianism, 34-35. Egyptian playwright Ali Salem relates to this pact in his book Rihla Ila Israil [A Journey to Israel] (Cairo, 1994). It is noteworthy, however, that some civil society actors in Egypt criticize its security sector for inflating the Islamic threat; see especially the film al-Irhab wa al-Kebab [Terror and Kebab]. A different example of civilsecurity cooperation against neoliberal market forces is the Jordanian publics hailing of the police intervention in a recent consumers struggle with owners of gas stations. See Al-Quds al-Arabi, November 11, 2008; G. Madadha, Fueling Anger and Resentment, The Star, November 24, 2008. 57. C. Enloe, Ethnic Soldiers (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1980); D. Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985); A. Peled, A Question of Loyalty (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998), 1-26; Y. Levy, Militarizing Inequality: A Conceptual Framework, Theory and Society 27 (1998): 873-904. 58. J. Quinlivan, Coup-proofing: Its Practice and Consequences in the Middle East, International Security 24, 2 (Fall 1999): 131-65. 59. R. Satloff and B. Diamond, Jordan, in Handbook of Political Science Research on the Middle East and North Africa, ed. B. Reich (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998), 151-52; M. Kamrava, Military Professionalization and CivilMilitary Relations in the Middle East, Political Science Quarterly 115, 1 (Spring 2000): 89-91; A. Bligh, The Jordanian Army: Between Domestic and External Challenges, in Armed Forces in the Middle East, ed. B. Rubin and T. Keaney (London: Frank Cass, 2002), pp. 149-161. 60. See the Amended Law of the National Conscription and Reserve Law for the Year 2007, Official Gazette, no. 4828 (May 31, 2008).

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61. C. Moskos, J. A. Williams, and D. Segal, eds., The Postmodern Military (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). A study that applies this concept to Egypt is H. Frisch, Guns and Butter in the Egyptian Army, in Rubin and Keaney, Armed Forces, pp. 161-180. 62. See especially J. Soeters and J. van der Meulen, eds., Managing Diversity in the Armed Forces (Tilburg: Tilburg University Press, 1999); S. C. Selden and F. Selden, Rethinking Diversity in Public Organizations for the 21st Century: Moving toward a Multicultural Model, Administration & Society 33 (July 2001): 303-29; C. Dandeker and D. Mason, Diversifying the Uniform? The Participation of Minority Ethnic Personnel in the British Armed Forces, Armed Forces & Society 29, 4 (Summer 2003): 481-507. 63. See, for example, C. Call and W. Stanley, Military and Police Reform after Civil Wars, in Contemporary Peacemaking, eds. J. Darby and R. Mac Ginty (London: Palgrave, 2003), pp. 212-223; C. Hartzell and M. Hoddie, Institutionalizing Peace: Power Sharing and Post-Civil War Conflict Management, American Journal of Political Science 47, 2 (April 2003): 318-32. 64. O. Barak, Towards a Representative Military? The Transformation of the Lebanese Officer Corps since 1945, Middle East Journal, 60, 1 (Winter 2006): 75-93. It should be added, however, that civilmilitary relations in Lebanon remain problematic due to the role of the Syrian Lebanese network mentioned earlier and because of the activities of Hizbullah, the only militia that has not transformed into a political party in the wake of the civil war of 19751990. 65. See, for example, the recent interesting demand of womens organizations in Iraq for a greater role for women in the countrys security sector as a means to curb jihadist tendencies among Iraqi females; al-Quds al-Arabi (October 27, 2008).

Bios
Oren Barak is a senior lecturer in the Departments of Political Science and International Relations at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, working on the relationship between the state, society, and the military in the non-Western regions and on ethnic and national relations. His book The Lebanese Army: A National Institution in a Divided Society was published by the State University of New York Press in 2009. Assaf David is a doctoral candidate in the Department of International Relations at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, and a research fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations, also at The Hebrew University, working on the relationship between the state, society, and the military in Jordan. He is also a senior consultant for Jordanian affairs at the Economic Cooperation Foundation.

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