Forging Military Identity in Culturally Pluralistic Societies

Book excerpt: Ethno-politics has become a major force in the post-Cold War era. The fundamental challenge to military establishments in deeply plural societies is the formation of institutional unity from diverse ethnic groups. This edited volume examines seven case studies of countries that have attempted, with varying degrees of success, to develop, or to begin to develop, within their military establishments a single “quasi-ethnic” military identity to effect unity within their ranks and attenuate the deep and often violent ethnic divisions that otherwise would pertain. The volume compares contrasting outcomes in two African regions: West Africa with the contrasting cases of Guinea and Nigeria and East Africa with the cases of Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. It also examines the very different cases of Algeria and Suriname. In most of these cases, the emergence of a single, unified, quasi-ethnic identity is in its earliest stages, although rapid global change points to the likelihood that this pattern will prevail.