Political change and professional security and defence qualifications in post-transitional Ecuador (1972-2016)

This chapter charts the development of military education in post-transitional Ecuador (1972-2016) and the varied impact of state intermediation on PME reform during periods of shifting legal, economic and political renewal. Focusing largely on the country's oldest security training institution, the Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales (Institute of Higher National Studies - IAEN), it demonstrates how the evolution of Ecuador's military education system is representative of a historical process of rapprochement between the armed forces and the strategic political level of the state. It argues that this has resulted in a level of integration of civilians within military education, designed to aid dialogue and enhanced decision-making across the civil-military divide. It concludes, however, that recent legal, institutional and political reforms in Ecuador make it difficult to predict the end result of this process.