Civil-Military Relations in Bangladesh: From Dominant Military Control to Dominant Civilian Control

Abstract

This article attempts to study the civil-military relations (CMR) in Bangladesh with particular focus on the military’s role in nation-security issues. The paper has historically traced the ups and downs of civil-military relations in Bangladesh since independence. This has been followed up with an analysis of the factors affecting civil-military relations in Bangladesh namely, political institutionalization, military institutionalization, domestic socio-economic milieu, and the international environment. The third section studies the military’s role in national security decision-making in Bangladesh and how the role of the military has shifted away from the military to dominance of civilian, political leadership over national security decision-making in Bangladesh. Finally, the article analyses the membership of the apex national security decision making bodies in National Committee for Intelligence Co-ordination (NCIC) and National Security Council (NSC) which further supports the argument of how the civilian has institutionally attempted to control major foreign policy and security related decision making, but the military in Bangladesh remains an important player which wields informal influence over national security decision making in Bangladesh.