Customer Reviews

A Question of Loyalty: Military Manpower Policy in Multiethnic States (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs)

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Alon Peled, a Harvard Ph.D who has achieved world-wide acclaim for his knowledge of both empirical political "events" and the theory that underlies these events, has written a truly brilliant book. It is my understanding that Peled visited several foreign countries, among them Singapore and Israel (Peled himself was a decorated Israeli officer) as he wrote this book, which arose from his doctoral dissertation, written under the auspices of the late Judith Shklar, who was a genius in her own right. Peled's analysis is inspirational in its breadth, thoroughness, and mostly in the piercing insight he offers. He is razor blade brilliant, and I am sure anyone interested in international affairs, military issues, Israel, political theory or the world as a whole will benefit from it immensely. I would like to add that I once had the good fortune of meeting Dr. Peled, and I am sure that he is a man of honor and decency whose interests transcend the intellectual realm and are aimed at the greater good of our society, our children, and ultimately ourselves. I have read many books in my day, yet none are more probing, more carefully thought out, nor more brilliantly written than that of Dr. Peled. We should count ourselves fortunate to have him among us!

The author, Alon Peled, examines the question as to whether or not subjected ethnic groups (i.e. 'trojan horses') can be trusted in the army. Peled briefly cites the recent Yugoslavia conflict and Czechoslovakia in 1938 as two well-known examples of successful trojan horses. The Yugoslav army disintegrated and was turned into a Serb ethnic militia, and the Czechoslovak gov't stood down under the combined threat of hostile German invasion and internal subversion by Sudeten Germans. In the last section, he describes the horrendous ethnic genocide in Rwanda that could have been instantly quelled had Rwanda had a truly ethnically integrated military. With this unnerving history, can subjected ethnic groups ever be trusted with weapons in their nation's army?

Peled looks at the three historical cases of ethic integration or disintegration within the military. First, he examines how South Africa, even when under the severest terms of apartheid, managed to slowly but successfully integrate first coloreds, then Indians, and finally blacks into the SADF. This highly-sensitive political issue in apartheid South Africa was handled very deftly by its leaders. Singapore, on the other hand, started with a military almost purely staffed by an ethnic minority and wound up almost entirely excluding them (Muslim Malays) within Singapore's defense establishment. And finally, Israel has integrated some ethnic groups (e.g. Druze, Christian Arabs) while continuing to exclude others (i.e. Muslim Arabs).

Peled defines two types of integration, horizontal and vertical. Horizontal integration is basically the increase in number the number of ethnic enlisted soldiers, while vertical integration is the promotion of ethnic soldiers into positions of leadership and sensitive areas (intelligence, operations, etc.). Peled states that for ethnic recruitment to be successful that horizontal integration must be followed by vertical integration. If not, the subjected ethnic group feels used, remains alienated, and represents a continued threat to internal security.

This is an important book on a rarely discussed, but highly important, topic. The description of the defense organizations in South Africa, Singapore, and Israel were quite interesting in and of themselves, while the ethnic integration/exclusion process was fascinating. (Ethnic leaders often negotiate the recruitment of their youth with the dominant gov't leaders.) I enjoyed this book, but more importantly, I believe that military manpower specialists will find this book an excellent introduction to the issue.