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Nelson Vaz
University of Bristol, U.K.
Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) Global Exchange Program Recipient
Visiting Scholar Winter 2004-Spring 2005
Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies (CILAS)
Area of Expertise: Civil-military relations, coercive
institutions, Portuguese and European security and defense policies.
My geographic area of research is Western Europe.
Country of Expertise: Portugal and Britain
Current Research Project: The Armed Forces were
a central political actor in Portugal for most of the XX century.
They intervened in 1926 to originate the New State (Estado Novo)
and again in 1974, to bring to an end the political system they
sustained for nearly 50 years. Until the early 1980s, throughout
the transition to democracy, the Military retained the center stage,
playing the role of an arbiter among contending political forces.
This research project compares Britain and Portugal, two extreme
examples in the context of Western Europe of political military
traditions. Britain is taken as the model of civilian supremacy
or democratic control of the Armed Forces, against which Portugal
will be compared. The focus of the analysis will be on the changing
security environment of the post-Cold War period. A time of changing
security perceptions, redrawing of military doctrines and national
security reform, provides the greatest opportunities for the military
to exercise its influence.
Four military policy-issues will be used as case studies to assess
military influence: budgetary issues, human rights issues, defense
reform issues and a case of use of force - the Iraq War. A strategic-relational
approach that transcends the artificial dualism between structure
and agency and a conceptualization of power as relational is adopted
to guide the analysis. The traditional domestic focus of policy
studies and civil-military relations is abandoned, to include three
levels of analysis: civil society, the state and international.
The research is still underway, but preliminary findings reveal
that the competitive dynamics of democracy diminishes the Armed
Forces’ political clout over time, regardless of their traditions.
Yet, democracy and civilian supremacy do not render an institution
with overwhelming coercive capabilities apolitical. In the context
of Western Europe, the Armed Forces remain an important political
actor, but one that may better be seen as an ‘institutional pressure
group’ that strives to influence national security policy.
Project Title: Politics, Pressure and the Soldier:
assessing military influence in Portugal and Britain at the turn
of the XX century
Academic Background: Nelson M R Vaz received his
BA (Licenciatura) from the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal,
and his MA in International Relations from the University of Essex,
U.K. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Politics at the University
of Bristol, U.K.
Selected Publications:
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