Seminar Series: Abstract

Making the RCAF: Civil-Military Relations in Cambodia (1993-present)
Chandarith Neak

This research aims to explain the causes and consequences of attempts to recreate a national army after the Cambodian state was restored in 1993 by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). The Cambodian state, emerging from prolonged wars and trauma, had the urgent task of establishing a national army called the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF). It was initially composed of three of the four formerly warring armies: the pro-Vietnamese Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Armed Forces, the monarchist Armée Nationale de Sihanoukiste, and the former republican Khmer People’s National Liberation Armed Forces. After 1999, when the Khmer Rogue guerrillas finally defected to the government, they were also integrated into the RCAF. With initiatives and support from the international community, the RCAF undertook a very ambitious program of reforms with the stated purpose of becoming a professional army. Given the magnitude of support for bringing democratization into the country and the incentive mechanisms from multilateral assistance, many expected the RCAF reforms to lead to positive civil-military relations. As it turned out, however, the military is poorly institutionalized and susceptible to political manipulations. Through an examination of the Cambodian military, this study will contribute to literatures on civil-military relations. This literature generally focuses on explaining the military’s propensity to intervene in politics, and on how to maximize civilian control, with very few studies shedding light on how military and other actors within the state structures are competing for domination in the transition. The trajectory of civil-military relations established during the Cambodian transition is indicative of low levels of democratization and state capacity within a broader patrimonial environment.