Houngnikpo, Mathurin C. Guarding the Guardians: Civil-Military Relations and Democratic Governance in Africa. Routledge, 2016.

This book explores the theory of civil-military relations and moves on to review the intrusion of the armed forces into African politics by looking first at the organization and role of the army in pre-colonial and colonial eras, before examining contemporary armies and their impact on society. Furthermore, it revisits the various explanations of military takeovers in Africa and disentangles the notion of the military as the modernizing force. Whether as a revolutionary force, as a stabilizing force, or as a modernizing force, the military has often been perceived as the only organized and disciplined group with the necessary skills to uplift newly independent nations. The performance of Africa's military governments since independence, however, has soundly disproven this thesis. As such, this study conveys the necessity of new civil-military relations in Africa and calls not just for civilian control of the military but rather a democratic oversight of the security forces in Africa.

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