Forging Military Identity In Culturally Pluralistic Societies

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.

The Changing Face of Corruption in the Asia Pacific: Current Perspectives and Future Challenges is a contemporary analysis of corruption in the Asia-Pacific region. Bringing academicians and practitioners together, contributors to this book discuss the current perspectives of corruption’s challenges in both theory and practice, and what the future challenges will be in addressing corruption’s proliferation in the region. Includes viewpoints from both practitioners and academic contributors on corruption in the Asia Pacific region Offers a strong theoretical background together with the practical experience of contributors Explores what the future challenges will be in addressing corruption’s proliferation in the region Aimed at both the academic and professional audience

Kenya is one of the most politically dynamic and influential countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Today, it is known in equal measure as a country that has experienced great highs and tragic lows. In the 1960s and 1970s, Kenya was seen as a ''success story" of development in the periphery, and also led the way in terms of democratic breakthroughs in 2010 when a new constitution devolved power and placed new constraints on the president. However, the country has also made international headlines for the kind of political instability that occurs when electoral violence is expressed along ethnic lines, such as during the "Kenya crisis" of 2007/08 when over 1,000 people lost their lives and almost 700,000 were displaced. The Oxford Handbook of Kenyan Politics explains these developments and many more, drawing together 50 specially commissioned chapters by leading researchers. The chapters they have contributed address a range of essential topics including the legacy of colonial rule, ethnicity, land politics, devolution, the constitution, elections, democracy, foreign aid, the informal economy, civil society, human rights, the International Criminal Court, the growing influence of China, economic policy, electoral violence, and the impact of mobile phone technology. In addition to covering some of the most important debates about Kenyan politics, the volume provides an insightful overview of Kenyan history from 1930 to the present day and features a set of chapters that review the impact of devolution on regional politics in every part of the country.

During the Cold War the British government oversaw the transition to independence of dozens of colonies. Often the most challenging aspect of this transition was the creation of a national army from colonial forces. In Built on the Ruins of Empire, Blake Whitaker examines this process in Kenya and Zambia and how it set the course for the creation of the army in Zimbabwe. He also looks at three themes as they intersect in African military history: British decolonization, race relations, and the Cold War. While the transition to independence was a difficult process in places such as Ghana and Nigeria, it was compounded by the racial tensions in Kenya, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. All three were settler colonies home to a sizable community of white Europeans who controlled the levers of power and economic prosperity. Built on the Ruins of Empire focuses on the difficulties that arose in creating a cohesive and apolitical military force in these racially charged Cold War environments and demonstrates that the challenges faced by the British training missions in Kenya and Zambia taught London important lessons about the emerging postcolonial world. Whitaker uniquely analyzes the successes and failures of the British military assistance programs and their quest to solidify British influence while examining how Britain’s position and influence in the wider world was fading just as Zimbabwe was achieving independence.

Since Kenya's invasion of Somalia in 2011, the Kenyan state has been engaged in direct combat with the Somali militant group Al-Shabaab, conducting airstrikes in southern Somalia and deploying heavy-handed police tactics at home. As the hunt for suspects has expanded within Kenya, Kenyan Muslims have been subject to disappearances and extrajudicial killings at the hands of U.S.-trained Kenyan police. War-Making as Worldmaking explores the entanglement of militarism, imperialism, and liberal-democratic governance in East Africa today. Samar Al-Bulushi argues that Kenya's emergence as a key player in the "War on Terror" is closely linked—but not reducible to—the U.S. military's growing proclivity to outsource the labor of war. Attending to the cultural politics of security, Al-Bulushi illustrates that the war against Al-Shabaab has become a means to produce new fantasies, emotions, and subjectivities about Kenya's place in the world. Meanwhile, Kenya's alignment with the U.S. provides cover for the criminalization and policing of the country's Muslim minority population. How is life lived in a place that is not understood to be a site of war, yet is often experienced as such by its targets? This book weaves together multiple scales of analysis, asking what a view from East Africa can tell us about the shifting configurations and expansive geographies of post-9/11 imperial warfare.

This unique two-volume book covers virtually the whole spectrum of international conflict and security law. It proceeds from values protected by international law (Part I), through substantive rules in which these values are embodied (Part II), to international and domestic institutions that enforce the law (Part III). It subsequently deals with current challenges in the application of rules of international conflict and security law (Part IV), and crimes as the most serious violations of those rules (Part V). Finally, in the section on case studies (Part VI), lessons learnt from a number of conflict situations are discussed. Written by an international team of experts representing all the major legal systems of the world, the book is intended as a reference work for students and researchers, domestic and international judges, as well as for legal advisers to governments and international and non-governmental organisations. Sergey Sayapin is Associate Professor and Associate Dean at KIMEP University, School of Law in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Rustam Atadjanov is Assistant Professor at KIMEP University, School of Law in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Umesh Kadam is formerly Additional Professor at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, India and Legal Adviser with the International Committee of the Red Cross. Gerhard Kemp is Professor of Law at the University of Derby in the United Kingdom. Nicolás Zambrana-Tévar is Associate Professor at KIMEP University, School of Law in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Noëlle Quénivet is Professor in International Law at the University of the West of England, Bristol Law School in the United Kingdom.

In Religion and the Making of Nigeria, Olufemi Vaughan examines how Christian, Muslim, and indigenous religious structures have provided the essential social and ideological frameworks for the construction of contemporary Nigeria. Using a wealth of archival sources and extensive Africanist scholarship, Vaughan traces Nigeria’s social, religious, and political history from the early nineteenth century to the present. During the nineteenth century, the historic Sokoto Jihad in today’s northern Nigeria and the Christian missionary movement in what is now southwestern Nigeria provided the frameworks for ethno-religious divisions in colonial society. Following Nigeria’s independence from Britain in 1960, Christian-Muslim tensions became manifest in regional and religious conflicts over the expansion of sharia, in fierce competition among political elites for state power, and in the rise of Boko Haram. These tensions are not simply conflicts over religious beliefs, ethnicity, and regionalism; they represent structural imbalances founded on the religious divisions forged under colonial rule.

This is a comprehensive, analytical and empirical analysis of the military variable in Nigerian politics. The authors focus on the relationship between the politicized institution of the military and such varied facets of society as culture, the press, the economy, federalism, religion and foreign policy. The voluminous work attempts an original, informed, comparative and balanced approach. The authors rely on both Western and local sources in their bibliographic references.

"The Soldiers' Revolution offers us a rare glimpse into the everyday world of the American Revolution. We see how the common experience of war drew soldiers together as they began the long process of forging an identity for a fledgling nation."--Jacket.

Presents empirical findings from different South-East Asian countries to demonstrate that Chinese businessmen employ a variety of strategies in their networking, entrepreneurship and organisational and firm development; and concludes that much more research is needed in order to provide a full understanding of Chinese business success.