The privatization and outsourcing of military services in Europe and North America are in the process of fundamentally transforming the relationships between the state, the citizen and the soldier in modern democracies. The changing security demands of the post-Cold War era have been an important impetus. However, these transformations also reflect the long-standing ideological dispute between Republicanism and Liberalism over how to ensure democratic control over military force. Republicanism and Liberalism agree that the state's monopoly on the use of collective violence can only be legitimate if it is democratically controlled by the citizens who are the ultimate source of the natural right to employ force in self-defence, but they disagree on how the latter can be achieved.

As this book has illustrated, Republicanism and Liberalism are still central to our understanding of the democratic control of the state and the armed forces. Nevertheless, the utility, relevance and legitimacy of both ideologies are constantly re-examined in the light of developments in the national and international political and security environments. Since the emergence of modern democracy in Europe and North America, governments have not only repeatedly shifted from one ideology and model of civil-military control to another, but have also revised them due to new demands, norms and values. This conclusion reviews the influence of both ideologies on contemporary models of democratic civil-military relations in the UK, the USA and Germany before discussing the potential contribution that both can make towards improving democratic control over the use of armed force in the new millennium.