Page 162 - 《国际安全研究》2023年第1期

Journal of International Security Studies
these countries’ financial extractive capacities. The statistical analysis of a large sample
of 126 post-colonial countries from 1980 to 2015 indicates that UNPKOs, be they in the
short term or in the long run, bear significant and negative correlations with the
extractive capacities of post-colonial target countries.
[Keywords] UN peacekeeping operations, post-colonial countries, state building,
national capabilities, extractive capacities
[Authors] LU Lingyu, Professor, Center for African Studies, Yunnan University;
WANG Xiaoru, M.A. Student, Center for African Studies, Yunnan University
(Kunming, 650091).

129 Inter-organizational Distrust and Alternative Armed Forces: The

Political Logic Behind the Abolition of Armies in Certain Latin
American Countries

JIA Shihui
[Abstract] Being a key indicator of state power, armed forces are an indispensable
component of most sovereign states and play an important role in both domestic
politics and international relations. However, there still exist a few countries in the
world that have voluntarily abolished their armies. It is noteworthy that these cases
are mostly concentrated in Latin America. The existing literature mainly explores
the underlying reason from the perspective of their status as a small country and
civil-military relations. It is generally believed that the specific relationship between
country size and national security, and the demilitarization reforms carried out by
these countries have formed the basic logic behind this phenomenon. Nevertheless,
these theoretical paradigms are insufficient to expound the individual cases in Latin
America. By examining the cases of Costa Rica and Haiti, this paper argues that
inter-organizational distrust and different sizes of alternative armed forces construct
the basic political logic behind the abolition of armies in certain Latin American
countries. Gaining credible support from armed forces is a prerequisite for the
consolidation of a new regime. When there is inter-organizational distrust between
the new government and the existing army, the former tends to seek to replace the
latter with other armed forces. At the same time, the strength of alternative armed
forces will greatly affect the government’s decision-making. When credible
alternative armed forces are not available or alternative armed forces are weak, a
viable choice for certain Latin American governments to strengthen their control
over armed forces will be abolishing their armies, establishing new armed forces or
fostering some previously weak armed groups.
[Keywords] Latin America, regime change, abolition of armies, inter-organizational
distrust, alternative armed forces
[Author] JIA Shihui, Ph.D. Candidate, School of International Studies, Peking
University (Beijing, 100871).

（本期英文编辑：张国帅 高静）

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