Military rulers tend to be more aggressive in deploying troops to crush dissent. But what most primes military rulers for violence, said Erica Frantz, a scholar of authoritarianism at Michigan State University, is their inexperience at ruling any other way. Most militaries see themselves as protectors against foreign threats, with a strong taboo against committing violence at home. But civil war can break that taboo, normalizing the idea that deploying domestically is legitimate, and making it easier to see fellow citizens as enemies. And it accustoms generals to the idea that their proper place is not guarding the borders but imposing order at home.

Source: International New York Times April 02, 2021 14:03 UTC