On Military Culture

Offering a contemporary perspective on military culture within Africa and with contributions from scholars and practitioners from around the world, this work presents the argument that African armed forces need to come to terms with the elements of military culture if they want to become more professional. To this end, the book first focuses on the theory of military culture, its implications for civil–military relations, and the role of the armed forces in society before examining a number of cases, from Canada, Australia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Namibia. This work ends with a detailed discussion of the South African military culture and an examination of its post-apartheid vision. In a post-colonial world, discussions about the role of the military are regarded with suspicion, but if the role of the modern soldier is to serve society as well as to fight war, then scholarship is needed to determine the military culture of the 21st century, and On Military Culture provides such an analysis.