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

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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X09344064

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The Arab Security Sector:

A New Research Agenda for

a Neglected Topic

Oren Barak and Assaf David1

Abstract

This article discusses the lack of adequate attention to the Arab Security Sector andits complex political and social roles in the Arab States and presents the contours ofa new research agenda for this topic. First, the authors demonstrate the insufficientscholarly attention accorded to the Arab Security Sector in several academicpublications in the fields of Middle East Studies and Security Studies in the period19902005. Second, they focus on three major areas where recent theoretical andcomparative advances in the study of civilmilitary relations have not been paralleledin the study of the Arab Security Sector: (1) the role of the Arab Security Sector in theprocess 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 theArab Security Sector in reflecting and reinforcing patterns of intersectoral relationsin 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, arecharacterized by a highly complex relationship between their security sector (the mili-

tary 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.

AFS344064AFS

1The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Corresponding Author:

Assaf David, Department of International Relations, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus,

Jerusalem 91905, Israel

Email: [email protected]

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Barak and David 805

The goal of this article is twofold: (1) to demonstrate the dearth of scholarly atten-

tion to the Arab Security Sector and its role in the state, politics, and society by exam-

ining 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 com-

parative 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 itssociocultural facets are concerned, and the impact of this role on the status and legiti-

macy of the security sector; (2) formal and informal connections between actors oper-

ating 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 policiestoward 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 forma-

tion 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 under-standing of the relationship between the Iraqi Army and the pattern of intersectoral

relations in the state could have suggested that replacing a military institution domi-

nated 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 inter-

national 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 theArab Security Sector that applies current theoretical advances for studying its com-

plex 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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806 Armed Forces & Society36(5)

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 securitysector. In most states in the world, including the Arab States, the military is the pri-

mary 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 aca-

demic 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 civilianizationof 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 Secu-

rity 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 oppo-

site 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 Gulfmonarchies), 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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Barak and David 807

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 (seebelow), new studies generally contented themselves with documenting the size, equip-

ment, 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 notablegaps 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 Dia-

logue (SD; established in 1992); Security Studies (SS; established in 1991). The sur-

vey included both research articles and review articles. Our conceptual frameworkconsisted 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 mili-

tary 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 EastStudies 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 thepatterns of civilsecurity relations in the regions states have received meager atten-

tion. 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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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 fewpublications that focus on civil security 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

Table 1. Focus of Articles in Security Studies Journals, 19902005

Focus (in percentages)

JournalNot Dealing with Middle

East Security SectorDealing with Middle East

Security Sector N

Armed Forces & Society 91 9 402International Security 95 5 413Security Dialogue 95 5 419Security Studies 92 8 349

Table 2. Focus of Articles in Middle East Studies Journals, 19902005

Focus (in percentages)

JournalNot Dealing with Middle

East Security SectorDealing with Middle East

Security Sector N

International Journal of

Middle East Studies97.0 3.0 344

Middle East Journal 87.5 12.5 351Middle Eastern Studies 94.0 6.0 599Arab Studies Quarterly 99.3 0.7 287

Middle East Quarterly 96.5 3.5 323

Table 3. Topics of Articles onMiddle East Security Sector in Security Studies Journals

Topic (in percentages)

CivilMilitary Relations

Journal

Conflict,Armament, and

Regional Security Israel Turkey Iran

Arab

States N

Armed Forces & Society 23.0 51 17 3 6.0 35International Security 94.5 5.5 18Security Dialogue 85.0 10 5 20Security Studies 93.0 7 28

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Barak and David 809

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 atten-

tion 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 militar-ily 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,

Table 4. Topics of Articles onMiddle East Security Sector in Middle East Studies Journals


CivilMilitary Relations

Journal

Conflict,Armament, and

Regional Security Israel Turkey IranArabStates N

International Journal of

Middle East Studies45.0 18.0 9.0 9 18.0 11

Middle East Journal 70.5 4.0 2.0 2 20.5 44Middle Eastern Studies 69.5 5.5 13.5 8 2.5 37Arab Studies Quarterly 50.0 50.0 2Middle East Quarterly 81.0 19.0 11

Table 5. Topics of Articles onArab Security Sector in All Journals


Journal ComparativeEgypt, Iraq,

Syria GCC StatesOther Arab

States N

Armed Forces & Society 100 2

International Security 100 1Security Dialogue 0Security Studies 0International Journal of

Middle East Studies50 50 2

Middle East Journal 11 22 11 55 9Middle Eastern Studies 100 1Arab Studies Quarterly 100 1Middle East Quarterly 100 2

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

and Oman.



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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, onlya 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 1990200715 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

twoAdelphi 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 than450 titles under the general classification Military Science, compared to approxi-

mately 1,800 titles classified as Political Studies (one of the twelve subclassifica-

tions of Politics).17Nearly 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 milita-

rism 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 booksdealing 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 two-

thirds deal with Iraq, WMD, and the ArabIsraeli warsand only five deal directlywith 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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Barak and David 811

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 abun-dant 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 schol-

arly 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 pub-

lications on the Arab States, it is those states with sizable militaries or economicwealth 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 theo-

retical 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 thisrelationship 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 Secu-

rity 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 secu-

rity 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 ter-

ritorial 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 nationalidentity.

24The 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 originatedfrom 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 dis-

seminating national myths, symbols, and official historical narratives not only amongits 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 socio-

cultural aspects of the process of state formation, which is only rarely tapped by stu-

dents, 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 Leba-

nons independenceoffer a wealth of information on the history, structure, person-

nel, and activities of the Arab Security Sector. At the same time, these bulletins suggesthow 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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Barak and David 813

melting pot for members of the various sectors of Lebanese society.31 Another tell-

ing 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 conscious-ness among Jordans citizens.

32

In addition to the official bulletins and other publications of the Arab Security Sec-

tor, 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 well-

being of the state in ordinary times, in emergencies (e.g., fires, snowstorms, epidem-ics), 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 for-

mer 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 offen-

sive remarks made by political leaders, media outlets, and independent Web sites.38

Some, such as the Lebanese Army, have even organized meetings with media report-

ers 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 sta-

bility.39 The Arab Security Sectors growing awareness of its public image was dem-

onstrated 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 agenciesroles in these realms but also the systematic use of relevant resources that, as we dem-

onstrated 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 separationinto 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 iden-tified 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 fol-

lowing 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, espe-

cially under conditions of uncertainty, derives from the fact that they are considered tobe 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 securiti-

zation whereby threats in general (and especially existential threats) become repre-

sented 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 theseother 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 afore-

mentioned general theories and, occasionally, to develop them further.50

The establish-

ment 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 encour-age 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 Inde-

pendent Investigation Commission established by the United Nations Security Coun-

cil 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 com-

posed 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 interna-

tional 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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Barak and David 815

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 secu-

rity 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 under-

standings between the security sector and members of civil society, the business sec-tor, 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 thesestates 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 authoritar-

ian 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.

VatikiotissPolitics and the Military in Jordan (1967) when discussing Jordans cur-rent pattern of civilmilitary relations.

59At 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 conscrip-

tion 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 ofnumerous 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 arrange-

ments in the security sector, both generally and in postconflict settings.63

Indeed, more attention to these issues will enable us to better comprehend the com-

plex 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 domi-

nated 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 bythe 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 shar-

ing 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 inter-

sectoral relations deserves more scholarly attention. As we have shown, there arenumerous 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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16/22


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 Secu-rity 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 ofArmed Forces & Society, and theanonymous 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 November10, 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 Revolution-

ary 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 Dynam-

ics 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 Jour-

nal57, 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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18/22


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: Interna-

tional Institute for Strategic Studies, 1990); R. Brooks,PoliticalMilitary Relations and theStability 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 for-

mer 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. Musal-

lam,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 Coun-

tries (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, Mechanismsand 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); Mitch-

ell, 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 instate 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 Uni-

versity 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 Mid-

dle 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? SecurityDialogue 32, 3 (September 2001): 341-54.

27. See, for example, O. Barak, Commemorating Malikiyya: Political Myth, Multiethnic Iden-

tity and the Making of the Lebanese Army, History & Memory 13, 1 (Spring/Summer



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Barak and David 821

2001): 60-84; A. Terrill, The Political Mythology of the Battle of Karameh,Middle East

Journal55, 1 (Winter 2001): 91-111.

28. 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 pub-

lish their memoirs.

29. 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).

30. A rare example is F. Khury, The Study of CivilMilitary Relations in Modernizing Soci-

eties 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, Orient43, 2 (June 2002): 207-24.

31. For details, see O. Barak, The Lebanese Army: A National Institution in a Divided Society

(Albany: State University of New York Press, 2009).

32. Al-Aqsa 808 (November 1989).33. See, for example, the Lebanese National Defense Magazine (est. 1990), which publishes

essays and research articles in Arabic, English, and French.

34. 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 Depart-

ment (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.

35. 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.36. See http://www.mashhoorhaditheh.com.

37. 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/New-

Arab-Media.pdf (accessed December 7, 2008).

38. See, for example, the detailed and documented response of the Jordanian Army to the alle-

gations made about its role in the 1948 War in the popular TV drama King Faruq (2007)

published in the November 2007 issue ofal-Aqsa. The Lebanese Army, too, responds to

unfavorable media reports. See, for example, its denial that some of its officers resignedduring the clashes in May 2008, at http://www.lebarmy.gov.lb/article.asp?ln=ar&id=18300

(accessed May 29, 2008).

39. 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 Gov-

erning 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, Theo-

ries 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 identi-

fies 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: Univer-

sity 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,Interna-

tional 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 Synthe-

sis,Journal of Security Sector Management2, 3 (September 2004): 1-13. Relevant studies

on the Arab Security Sector are: Y. Sayigh, Security Sector Reform in the Arab Region: Chal-

lenges 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, Pros-

pects for Middle East Security-Sector Reform, Survival49, 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., CivilMilitary 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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Barak and David 823

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 frombelow. A. David, From Islamic Iran to Shiite Persia: Elite, Public Opinion and the Securi-

tization 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 Theo-

retical 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 yukalmeans 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 politi-

cal 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 inter-

national support. See E. Bellin, Coercive Institutions and Coercive Leaders, in Posusney

and Angrist,Authoritarianism, 34-35. Egyptian playwright Ali Salem relates to this pact inhis bookRihla 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 ofLoyalty (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998), 1-26; Y. Levy, Militarizing Inequal-

ity: A Conceptual Framework, Theory and Society 27 (1998): 873-904.

58. J. Quinlivan, Coup-proofing: Its Practice and Consequences in the Middle East,Interna-

tional 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, inArmed 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 ArmedForces (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 (April2003): 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, how-

ever, 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 tenden-

cies 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 rela-

tions. His bookThe 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 TheHebrew 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.

Documents

The Arab Security Sector a New Research