The Military Role in Reconciliation
Abstract
Reconciliation remains an elusive concept in both domestic and international contexts as well as academic and governmental contexts. The military role in reconciliation remains even more elusive. As such, this monograph seeks to clarify what the appropriate role is for the U.S. military in a reconciliation process. Moreover, it seeks to discount the role of the military as the enforcer of a reconciliation process. To do so, it first defines reconciliation and establishes a framework for understanding the process. Next, it assesses the adequacy of reconciliation's treatment in current U.S. Government doctrine. Finally, it evaluates three case studies of reconciliation methods that were used in South Africa, Rwanda, and Northern Ireland. The primary finding of this research is that military force plays a very small role in the reconciliation process beyond providing a secure environment. Neither military forces, nor any external actors for that matter, can force a divided society to reconcile. External actors who wish to facilitate a reconciliation process must predicate intervention on a clear understanding of the opposing sides' intentions regarding reconciliation. The secondary finding is that the U.S. Government's understanding of reconciliation is unclear and its treatment of reconciliation is inconsistent. Current U.S. Government doctrine on stability operations only addresses "post-conflict states" and does not make the critical distinction between "post-interstate" conflict and "post-intrastate" conflict. Without this distinction, reconciliation will remain a neglected aspect of future stability operations. Moreover, continued misunderstanding of reconciliation will encourage some people to advocate that reconciliation be a military responsibility, which could potentially undermine the success of future stability operations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA523222
Entities
People
- Terrence H. Buckeye
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College