ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between conceptual and structural development in Central Europe, all within the overall context of general European security. It focuses on the idea that the formation of an effective European defense community that includes the Central European states will require the establishment in those states of national-security structures that are compatible with those in the West. Civil or parliamentary control of the military is a defining characteristic of liberal-democratic societies. Common and fundamental concepts drawn from the military and civil history of Western Europe are the foundation of civil-military relations in all Western states. Samuel Huntington argues that "civilian control decreases as the military becomes increasingly involved in institutional, class, and constitutional politics" and that "objective civilian control" of the military requires the "militarizing of the military." Political authority is given meaning in several ways but the most obvious and important is through the control of resources that are at the disposal of military officers.
