ABSTRACT
The theme of this book is the democratic civilian control of armed forces. It examines how contemporary European states, both mature Western democracies and emerging democracies of post-communist Central and Eastern Europe, manage the issue of ‘Who will guard the guardians?’ (‘Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodies?’ Juvenal, Omnia Romae, VI, 347). That is, how does a society, primarily through its legitimate, democratically elected political leaders and their appointed officials, control the military, that same state institution that has been established for its protection and wields the monopoly of legitimate force?
