Chronicle of a foretold militarization?

The roles of the military and civil-military relations in times of pandemic

Abstract

In the first months of the year 2020, the World Health Organization officially granted global pandemic status to the Coronavirus, or COVID-19, a virus practically unknown to the common people until just a few months before. Spreading at meteoric speed to reach every corner of the planet, the pandemic had profound effects in different latitudes and on different aspects of human interactions, including civil-military relations. The Western Hemisphere was not unaffected by this transformation, and its political sphere registered important impacts. This paper analyzes the evolution of military roles in the Americas and considers the possible implications for the future of the region, in relation to the issues of civil-military control, democratic governance and institutional consolidation.