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On Military Culture
Theory, practice and African armed forces
F VREŸ, T MANDRUP & A ESTERHUYSE (EDITORS)
African armed forces face many challenges with regard to military professionalism, as recent coups in Mali and Niger, and the poor performance of the DRC’s armed forces, illustrate. And military professionalism is linked to military culture, which is about the collective activities of armed forces, particularly their distinctive practices and collective understanding of shared goals and how to achieve them.
One of the reasons for their flawed performance is that Africa’s different military cultures are at a formative stage. But how do we understand and reconcile them when discussion of military culture largely occurs from a Western perspective? This book offers a contemporary view of military culture within Africa, with contributions from scholars and practitioners from Africa, as well as North America, Europe and Australia.
It first focuses on the theory of military culture, the implications for civil-military relations, and the role of the armed forces in society. It then presents a number of cases, from Ethiopia, Kenya and Namibia as well as Australia and Canada. Thirdly, the book discusses the South African military, with a retrospective view of its military culture and an examination of its post-apartheid vision. The underlying argument of this book is that African armed forces need to come to terms with the elements of military culture if they want to become more professional as an instrument of war and in their purpose of serving society.
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Francois Vreÿ is Associate Professor of Strategy, Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Military and Strategic Studies and has written many journal articles and book chapters, including in South African Contemporary Counterinsurgency: Roots, practices, prospects (UCT Press, 2010). Thomas Mandrup is Associate Professor at the Institute for Strategy, Royal Danish Defence College. Abel Esterhuyse is Associate Professor of Strategy, Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He is Editor of Scientia Militaria, the South African Journal of Military Studies.
978 1 77582 066 6 978 1 77582 140 3 978 1 77582 141 0 978 1 77582 150 2 2013
304 PAGES
ZAR R499.00 ZAR R466.00 ZAR R466.00 ZAR R466.00
JUTA EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES CATALOGUE | 2018/2019
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