Kristina Mani, Ph.D.
kmani@oberlin.edu
Full Professor
Oberlin College
Year of PhD: 2004
Address: Oberlin College, Politics Department
City: Oberlin, Ohio - 44074
Country: United States
About Me:
I am Professor and Chair in the Department of Politics at Oberlin College. My research focuses on the relationships between domestic political change and regional security in Latin America. Questions that interest me especially include how the processes of democratization and democratic consolidation impact elite political learning and historical memory of conflict and cooperation. My book, Democratization and Military Transformation in Argentina and Chile: Rethinking Rivalry (Lynne Rienner 2011), explored these dynamics in terms of changes to military thinking and behavior that reshaped security relations in the Southern Cone. That project relied on dozens of individual interviews and documentary sources, and established my interest in interpreting the power shifts and narrative reframing that result from challenges to historically influential elites like the armed forces. Currently my research centers on how Latin American militaries have been influential actors in their national economies, in a variety of different ways that often have deep historical and strategic roots, as well as important implications for military autonomy and professionalism. That work studies several countries from across the region, including cases from Central and South America. My scholarly articles have been published in journals including Armed Forces and Society, Bulletin of Latin American Research, and Latin American Politics and Society. While I am not a policy analyst, I feel strongly that my work as a social scientist should provide insights for policy makers, both official and non-governmental. I have consulted and produced papers for think tanks and non-profit organizations including Transparency International, Providing for Peacekeeping, RESDAL, and the Christian Michelsen Institute. At Oberlin I teach courses in international relations and Latin American politics. Along with core courses in those areas, I teach topical courses on transnational justice and transnational actors. I have also chaired Oberlin's programs in Latin American Studies and International Studies.
Research Interests
Challenges To Democracy
Civil-military Relations
Latin American And Caribbean Politics
Foreign Policy
Peacekeeping
Conflict Processes & War
Countries of Interest
Argentina
Chile
Colombia
Publications:
Journal Articles:
The Honduran military has a long history of established roles oriented toward both external defense and internal security and civic action. Since the end of military rule in 1982, the military has remained a key political, economic, and social actor. Politically, the military retains a constitutional mandate as guarantor of the political system and enforcer of electoral rules. Economically, its officers direct state enterprises and manage a massive pension fund obscured from public audit. Socially, the military takes on numerous civic action tasks—building infrastructure, conserving forests, providing healthcare, and policing crime—that make the state appear to be useful to its people and bring the military into direct contact with the public almost daily. As a result, the military has ranked high in public trust in comparison with other institutions of the state. Most significantly, the military has retained the role of arbiter in the Honduran political system. This became brutally clear in the coup of 2009 that removed the elected president, Manuel Zelaya. Although new rules enhancing civilian control of the military had been instituted during the 1990s, the military’s authority in politics was restored through the coup that ousted Zelaya. As no civilian politician can succeed without support for and from the military, the missions of the armed forces have expanded substantially so that the military is an “all-purpose” institution within a remarkably weak and increasingly corrupt state.
Across Latin America, political leaders are turning to the military to provide critical resources, logistics and security capabilities against the coronavirus—and the military is likely to gain political clout as a result. Will politicians be able to roll back the militarization once the pandemic is over? Published April 21, 2020
Latin American political history shows that sending out troops to quell unrest is a perilous move even in strong democracies. Lessons from Uruguay, Venezuela and Chile deserve attention as the US weighs using the military to quash civil protests after the police killing of George Floyd.
This paper analyzes three decades of civil-military relations reform in Argentina, which transformed the armed forces from an organization that chronically intervened in politics to one effectively subordinate to civilian control that is more far-reaching than any other in contemporary Latin America. Through a qualitative case study, the paper identifies a sequence of strategies involving confrontation, incorporation, and finally subordination, as civilian leaders first undertook a lengthy process of legal and institutional reforms to subordinate the military, and more recently sought to develop a citizen soldier model through legal, gender equality, and educational innovations. Thus institutional restructuring has led to efforts to promote a culture shift in the armed forces. The analysis finds that while this sequencing of reforms has been positive, it is not without obstacles, and concludes that bringing a non-partisan citizenship model to fruition within the armed forces requires sustained commitments from civilian political leaders and civil society.
Despite the shift to democratic regimes and market-based economies, in many Latin American countries the military retains important economic roles as owners, managers, and stakeholders in economic enterprises. Such military entrepreneurship poses a challenge to the development of democratic civil military relations and by extension to the development of liberal democracy in the region. While scholars have noted this situation with concern, there has been little attention to distinguishing the different types of military entrepreneurship that reflect distinct historical patterns and implications. This article identifies two major types of military entrepreneurs in Latin America: industrializers determined to build national defense capabilities and compete for international prestige, and nation-builders seeking to promote economic development that can foster social development and cohesion. Case studies of Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and Ecuador demonstrate important differences among these two types in terms of their origins, paths and political consequences.
Books Written:
Is there a relationship between the consolidation of democracy and the ending of rivalries with neighboring states? Can internationalist foreign policies be useful in reprogramming militaries to accept civilian authority? Addressing these questions, Kristina Mani examines the dynamic connection between democracy building and security cooperation in Argentina and Chile in the 1990s. Her thoughtful analysis reveals how the international relations of democratizing states are both the product of domestic political goals and a potentially powerful shaper of domestic politics.
Book Chapters:
This volume combines the study of governance, democratization, and policymaking to explore how military politics have unfolded since the return to democracy in Chile. The book offers timely research to understand the rocky road to overcome the civil-military tension of the 1990s and the challenges presented by novel security demands in the twenty-first century, including the militarization of urban crime and pandemics, and its consequences on human rights. My chapter analyzes the Chilean military's international missions in the post-authoritarian period. I argue this engagement is not simply due to global conditions, but to a special responsibility the state and its armed forces bear in the wake of the military dictatorship. Examining debates over the missions including peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance and disaster management, I conclude that international engagement has been overwhelmingly beneficial to the evolution of civilian control and therefore to Chile’s democratic development.
Bringing together leading scholars from across the world, this comprehensive Research Handbook analyses key problems, subjects, regions, and countries in civil-military relations. Showcasing cutting-edge research developments, it illustrates the deeply complex nature of the field and analyses important topics in need of renewed consideration. In an era where democracy is declining globally, what role does the military play in promoting democratic resilience – and alternatively in promoting democratic backsliding? My chapter, "Democratic resilience and the military in new democracies," examines how the military can be positioned to support the resilience of democracy. I explore some of the “maintenance” dynamics in democratic resilience by focusing on conditions in Latin America, a region that can inform broader understanding of civil-military relations (CMR) in new democracies. While Latin America has trended away from CMR reform and toward a new “utilitarian militarism,” it also provides some core lessons for enhancing democratic resilience. In particular, it demonstrates domestic (internal) military roles and missions that contribute to democratic backsliding, as well as ways that mission guardrails can be applied to diminish backsliding and even promote democratic resilience. Ultimately, both democracy-minded leaders and scholars need to better understand the military’s institutions and cultures in order to strengthen democracy.
Countering prevalent scholarly perspectives about the rise of private security, this edited volume argues that the global market for force is actually a conglomeration of many types of markets that vary according to local politics and geostrategic context. My chapter, "Diverse Markets for Force in Latin America: from Argentina to Guatemala," conceptualizes several of these market types through brief cases studies in the Latin America region. The book resulted from a collaboration of scholars from around the world who met and developed the project at several meetings of the International Studies Association.
This edited volume examines how borders in the Americas have created a range of complex social, economic and political issues that divide or unite countries, and in some cases reframe their national identities. My chapter, “Political Learning through a Transgovernmental Network: Resolving the Argentine-Chilean Border Dispute during the 1990s," uses the concept of transgovernmental networks (developed by international relations theory liberals Nye, Keohane, and Slaughter to identify how bureaucrats in different countries jointly coordinate robust policies at lower levels of government) to analyze the security cooperation-building processes developed by Argentina and Chile in the 1990s, a period I explored in my book Democratization and Military Transformation in Argentina and Chile (Lynne Rienner 2011).
Book Reviews:
https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/book-review-high-risk-feminism-colombia-womens-mobilization-violent-contexts/
https://networks.h-net.org/node/28443/discussions/7589008/h-diplo-review-essay-336-ghosts-sheridan-circle
Media Appearances:
TV Appearances:
Interviewed about political challenges in Venezuela, Colombia, and the region's popular protest moment.
Interviewed by The Newsmakers' hosted by Imran Garda about Chile's 2017 general election.
Newspaper Quotes:
Interviewed for Alex Ward's article, "Chileans want a more equal society. They’re about to rewrite their constitution to have it."
Interviewed for Jonathan Bernstein's article, "Stakes are High in Colombia's Presidential Election."
Interviewed for Jonathan Bernstein's article, "Chile's Democracy Enters a Rough Patch."
Other:
Interview about my research, Latin American militaries, and transnational issues facing the region.
Commentary in the daily Latin America Advisor: Are Latin America's militaries taking on too much power?
"Civil-Military Relations at a Crossroads in the Americas" -- In this podcast, Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America interviews me about the evolution of civil-military relations in Latin America. The effort to assert civilian control over armed forces was central to Latin America’s post-Cold War democratic transitions. But progress in civil-military relations seems to have stalled in recent years, as civilian leaders turned to the troops to play many non-defense roles, especially policing. Now, the COVID-19 crisis has made the armed forces a part of daily civic life to an extent not seen since the years when military dictatorships governed much of the region. We discuss these developments, and also what they imply for the future relationship among the military, the state and society in the Americas.
To celebrate International Women’s Day this year we asked several of our former interviewees about women and IR: What can we do to forge a gender equal discipline? Below are responses from Kristina Mani, J. Ann Tickner, Ruth Blakeley, Swati Parashar, Kimberly Hutchings, Emma Mc Cluskey and Sophie Harman.