This paper explores how military policy can affect the potential for military defection as a consequence of repression of civic resistance campaign. Chenoweth, Stephan and Van de Walle concluded that civic resistance campaigns lead to defection within the regime supporter’s ranks and, thus, push regime change (Chenoweth and Stephan 2011; Van de Walle 2006). In many cases, however, authoritarian regimes still use the military to end opposition mobilization and do not suffer from massive security personnel defection.
Through a case study of Togo, this paper demonstrates that the use of ethnicity as a tool of recruitment and promotion can prevent regime defection within the armed forces. Ethnic stacking within the military meant that president Eyadéma could use the military to diminish and even divide the opposition movement at critical junctures. These conclusions stress the importance to study military composition and its influence on authoritarian regime’s stability.
