Based on a conference held in Washington, DC, 13-14 Mar 1995.

Poland and NATO is the third book by Jeffrey Simon on emerging post-communist countries to recently join NATO. As with the previous two volumes, this book contains a treasure of firsthand research grounded in primary source material and personal interviews with key civil and military leaders.

This major comparative study examines the challenges faced by countries of postcommunist Europe in reforming and professionalizing their armed forces. It explores how the interaction of the common challenges of postcommunism and the diverse circumstances of individual countries are shaping professionalization processes in this changing region. The detailed country case studies in this volume, written by leading experts to a common analytical framework, compare the experiences of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, FRY, Russia and Ukraine.

This book examines the ways in which European democracies, including former communist states, are dealing with the new demands placed on their security policies since the cold war by transforming their military structures, and the effects this is having on the conceptualisation of soldiering. In the new security environment, democratic states have called upon their armed forces increasingly to fulfil unconventional tasks – partly civilian, partly humanitarian, and partly military – in most complex, multi-national missions. Not only have military structures been transformed to make them fit for these new types of deployments, but the new mission types highlight the necessity for democracies to come to terms with a new image and ethos of soldiering in defence of a transnational value community. Combining a qualitative comparison of twelve countries with an interdisciplinary methodology, this edited volume argues that the ongoing transformations of international politics make it necessary for democracies to address both internal and external factors as they shape their own civil-military relations. The issues discussed in this work are informed by Democratic Peace theory, which makes it possible to investigate relations within the state at the same time as analysing the international dimension. This approach gives the book a systematic theoretical framework which distinguishes it from the majority of existing literature on this subject. This book will be of much interest to students of civil-military relations, European politics, democratisation and post-communist transitions, and IR in general.

Fifteen years after the fall of communism, we are able to appraise the results of the multi-faceted postcommunist transition in Central and Eastern Europe with authority. This volume specifically addresses the fascinating area of Civil-Military relations throughout this transitional period. The countries of the region inherited a onerous legacy in this area: their armed forces were part of the communist party-state system and most were oriented towards Cold War missions; they were large in size and supported by high levels of defence spending; and they were based on universal male conscription. Central and eastern European states have thus faced a three fold civil-military reform challenge: establishing democratic and civilian control over their armed forces; implementing organisational reform to meet the security and foreign policy demands of the new era; and redefining military bases for legitimacy in society. This volume assesses the experiences of Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro, Ukraine and Russia in these areas. Collectively these countries illustrate the way in which the interaction of broadly similar postcommunist challenges and distinct national contexts have combined to produce a wide variety of different patterns of civil-military relations. This book was previously published as a special issue of European Security.

"This perceptive and well-informed study highlights the continuity of the Russian (civilian and military) security community's distrust of the outside world, fueled by NATO enlargement. Communism may be dead in Russia, but the obsession with 'threats' continues, rallying the population and keeping security elites in power. This makes Russia an uncomfortable world player to live with. A must read."--Beatrice Heuser, professor and chair of International Relations, School of Politics and International Relations, University of Reading (UK) As Russia reasserts itself on the international stage, the relationship between its civilian and military spheres remains one of the determining factors in the organization of political power. Thomas Gomart's Russian Civil-Military Relations: Putin's Legacy looks beyond traditional dualism between the Kremlin and the military, introducing the role of the security services in Russian power distribution. With the support of the siloviki (security service) and justification through the fight against "international terrorism," Putin worked throughout his administration to reestablish presidential control over the military. As Russia transitions to Dmitry Medvedev's presidency, it is important to not only review the Putin presidency, which has given many of the country's institutions their shape, but also to reach back further into post-communist and Soviet history for an understanding of the realities of today. Russian Civil-Military Relations provides crucial analysis of the nature and evolution of the balance between civilian and military institutions. These relations will continue to influence regime development, security policy, and societal attitudes that build from Putin's Russia to Medvedev's administration and into the future.

When the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, Eastern Europe saw a new era begin, and the widespread changes that followed extended into the world of art. Art and Democracy in Post-Communist Europe examines the art created in light of the profound political, social, economic, and cultural transformations that occurred in the former Eastern Bloc after the Cold War ended. Assessing the function of art in post-communist Europe, Piotr Piotrowski describes the changing nature of art as it went from being molded by the cultural imperatives of the communist state and a tool of political propaganda to autonomous work protesting against the ruling powers. Piotrowski discusses communist memory, the critique of nationalism, issues of gender, and the representation of historic trauma in contemporary museology, particularly in the recent founding of contemporary art museums in Bucharest, Tallinn, and Warsaw. He reveals the anarchistic motifs that had a rich tradition in Eastern European art and the recent emergence of a utopian vision and provides close readings of many artists—including Ilya Kavakov and Krzysztof Wodiczko—as well as Marina Abramovic’s work that responded to the atrocities of the Balkans. A cogent investigation of the artistic reorientation of Eastern Europe, this book fills a major gap in contemporary artistic and political discourse.