Abstract:

In this talk, Dr. Beliakova will discuss how civilian officials may unintentionally weaken their control of the armed forces. She will present findings from her book project "Know Thy Military: How Governmental Policies Weaken Civilian Control." This study challenges the assumption that power-hungry officers are the main actors threatening civilian control. Highlighting the civilian side of the bargain, the book shows that elected politicians' decisions about the use of force can weaken civilian control of the military even in states with low coup risks. The book argues that when governmental policies require the military to act beyond their profession, it leads to the erosion of civilian control in forms other than coups – insubordination, competition, and civilian deference to the military. Building on evidence from Russia, Ukraine, Israel, and the United Kingdom, this study adds to the classic Sun Tzu’s recipe of military success —“know thy enemy and know thyself” — by encouraging the governments contemplating the use of force to know their militaries.

Bio:

Dr. Polina Beliakova is a scholar of international security focusing on civil-military relations and the use of force, with regional expertise in Russia and Ukraine. Being a native Ukrainian and Russian speaker, she collects data through elite interviews, fieldwork, archival research, and systematic review of local media sources, using quantitative and qualitative approaches for data analysis. Her book project, Know Thy Military: How Governmental Policies Weaken Civilian Control, highlights the understudied effects of governmental decisions about the use of force on the erosion of civilian control in the states with historically coup-averse militaries. The empirical chapters build on evidence from Russia, Ukraine, Israel, and the United Kingdom.

Dr. Beliakova received her Ph.D. in International Relations from the Fletcher School, Tufts University, and held a postdoctoral appointment at Dartmouth College's Dickey Center for International Understanding