Building Armies, Building Nations: Toward A New Approach To Security Force Assistance

Abstract

This report proposes an alternative approach to Security Force Assistance (SFA) derived from an interpretation of nation-building and legitimacy formation grounded in history; it argues for the importance of ideas, identities, and ideology, and that SFA efforts often err by focusing too exclusively on force structure, capabilities, and readiness, while ignoring the extent to which a forces development complements the larger nation-building project and the formation of appropriate ideas, identities, and ideologies within the force. The report uses six case studies (South Korea, South Vietnam, Iraq, Ghana, Mali, and Nigeria) to explore the relationship between building armies and building nations as well as potential U.S. contributions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 16, 2018
Accession Number
AD1055959

Entities

People

  • Bryan A. Frederick
  • Christopher G. Pernin
  • John Iv Gordon
  • Michael Shurkin

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Civil War
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Geography
  • Governments
  • Health Services
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Military History
  • Military Science
  • Military Training
  • Minority Groups
  • National Governments
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Political Systems
  • Public Policy
  • Students
  • Terrorism
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • International Relations, focusing on Korea-Africa and North Korea-South Korea relations, and Nigeria-Latin American Relations.
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.
  • Organizational Psychology.