Armed Forces and Democracy: Security and Transition in South Africa

Jakkie Cilliers, executive director of South Africa’s Institute for Defence Policy (IDP), served for 14 years as an artillery officer in the South African Defence Force, resigning for political reasons in 1989 with the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1991, he founded the IDP, which has played a formative role in guiding the South African military through the processes of transition and integration. This essay was presented at a conference on civil-military relations co-sponsored by the International Forum for Democratic Studies and the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Washington, D.C., in March 1995.