IR-student asked:
In the news, I often read about military occupation issues. Sometimes I see the subject of “military government” mentioned. So, I am wondering, what is the relationship between military occupation and military government?
In the news, I often read about military occupation issues. Sometimes I see the subject of “military government” mentioned. So, I am wondering, what is the relationship between military occupation and military government?
When does military occupation begin and when does military government begin? When (or via what criteria) do they end?
Fire Your Boss Now
Filed under:
Government
Failed Experiment
The physical presence of the victors in the land of the defeated may be termed “occupation”. If the affairs of the country are being overseen by the military until suitable locals can be put in place, this could be referred to as “military government”.
The term military government also describes the various dictatorships formerly found in Central and South America. Generals took over and called themselves President or Head of State.
Failed Experiment
Professor just forgot one minor addition: military government installed by local/native military forces.
Otherwise it is occupation: whatever you call a cheese it is still a cheese.
Such governments we call marionette/puppet regimes: South Vietnamese or current Iraqi.
Usually military government is a result of a coup.
The samples of modern military governments: Greek Black Colonels, Chilean regime of Pinochet, Argentinian regime of Videla, Korean regime of Park Chung Hee.
Collecting Comix
The Hague Conventions of 1907 specify that “territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army.” William Birkhimer on page 33 of his opus Military Government and Martial Law (3rd edition, 1914) notes that: “The truth must be that a territory is militarily occupied when the invader dominates it to the exclusion of the former and regular government. The true test is exclusive possession.”
The form of administration by which an occupying power exercises government authority over occupied territory is called “military government.”
The US Constitution has placed no limit upon the war powers of the government, but they are regulated and limited by the laws of war. One of these powers is the right to institute military governments.
Military Government includes civil administration of military government for interim cessions, which is commonly composed of both civil and military components. Technically speaking, military government is used as an interim and provisional government of undetermined cessions, and especially for “foreign territory” under control by conquest; and while it is not martial law but it can be indefinite; hence the some persons regard military government as the international law equivalent of “martial law.”
The administration of occupied territory is conducted under military government. There does not have to be a formal announcement of the beginning of “military government,” nor is there any requirement of a specific number of people to be in place, or “on site” before military government can be said to have commenced.