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9781350413429

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""Bachmann's book provides a critical and insightful take on the extent to which the military has been, and can be, instrumental to the process of state building and state formation in Central Africa. His work comes highly recommended and is a must read for students, academics and practitioners interested in civil-military relations more broadly, and specifically those studying the interplay between the state, armed forces, and civil society in Central Africa."" --Prof Evert Kleynhans, Stellenbosch University ""In this outstandingly researched volume, Bachmann advances a global theory of state-building that engages with the specific cultural, political and military trajectories of three Central African countries. Focusing his analysis on the relationship between the Army and the State, Bachmann shows that models of Civil-Military Relations cannot be limited to investigating the importance of war in state formation but must also account for patronage and political sociology. This helps us to properly locate the place and role of the armed forces in Central African Society. In this highly recommended book, Bachmann demonstrates the limitations with existing Western models of civil-military relations."" --Matthew Ford, Swedish Defence University, Sweden ""Olaf Bachmann writes, 'The contemporary democratic state centres on the well-being of the citizens and, in more recent understandings, their 'human security'.' This is symbolic of an insightful study of civil-military relations in the African diaspora. Nation-building and militarism was once Hans Delbrück's forte. The achievement of this book is to explain the symbiosis of statecraft and military institutions, without being couched in European bureaucratisation, because Bachmann has intimate knowledge of the countries. A remarkable book and highly recommended."" --Philip W. Blood, author of Birds of Prey (2021)

Author Information

Olaf Bachmann is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King's College London, UK. He lived and worked as a practitioner for many years in Central Africa, including in Gabon, Cameroon, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of Congo. His teaching and research focuses on security governance and leadership theory in the developing world.

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