Assessment of the Transformation of Civil-Military Relations in Serbia and Croatia since 2000

Since 2000, the republics of Serbia and Croatia have had very different levels of achievement and success in transforming their national security orientations and doctrine, military structures, and patterns of civil-military relations to conform to the expectations of the Atlantic and European communities. Both nations’ armed services and their respective ministries have abandoned old national security and defence strategies based upon nation state threats and both have substantially downsized their military force structures. Croatia, however, has been much more successful than Serbia in building a professional, modern force that contributes to collective security in the region and it has made considerably more progress in articulating a vision of the future and in transforming civil-military relations to conform to the needs and expectations of a democratic society. A comparison of the process of reform and transformation between these states indicates that the consensus among Croatia’s political leaders to stand by the transformation process and the lack of agreement among Serbia’s political leaders is the critical factor determining the relative success of the transformation process in civil-military relations in Serbia and Croatia.