A secure environment in which the public need not fear physical violence is an indispensable prerequisite of democracy building. Having a reliable and competent police force is obviously a crucial part of providing public safety. Ultimately, however, the most critical institution a democratizing state must establish that will allow the police to do their work in the first place is the regular armed forces. Where there is widespread violence and/or armed conflict, the police ordinarily lack the capacity to normalize the situation and only a conventional army can bring about a stable environment. This seems to be a straightforward proposition, but democratization and democracy-promotion scholars seldom acknowledge that the projects of democratization cannot proceed without basic, street-level public safety.

Hundreds of books have been written on virtually every conceivable aspect of democratization, but the question of how democratic armies – that is to say, armies supportive of democratic governance (not of one or another political party) – might be molded in post-authoritarian states has received surprisingly little attention. This is a curious omission because – as has become all too clear in Iraq – it is virtually impossible to get on with the various political, social, and economic projects of democracy-building without establishing physical security.