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Krebs, Ronald R. & Licklider, Roy (2016). United They Fall: Why the International Community Should Not Promote Military Integration after Civil War. International Security, 40(3), 93-138. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3WH2S4D

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TitleUnited They Fall: Why the International Community Should Not Promote Military Integration after Civil War
NameKrebs, Ronald R. (author), Licklider, Roy (author), Political Science (New Brunswick), School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) (New Brunswick)
Date Created2016
SubjectCivil war, Peace agreements, Peacekeeping, Military integration, Peace-building, Sudan, Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Rwanda, Philippines, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sierra Leone, Burundi
DescriptionThe single strongest predictor of civil war is a nation having had one in the past, and preventing the recurrence of civil war has thus become the critical problem for both scholarship and policy. The conventional wisdom urges the creation of capable, legitimate, and inclusive postwar states to reduce the risk of relapse into civil war, and international peacebuilders have often encouraged the formation of a new national army including members of the war’s opposing sides. However, military integration has received little theoretical or empirical attention. Filling that gap, we argue that both the theoretical logics and the empirical record identifying military integration as a significant contributor to durable post-civil war peace are weak. Our analysis of eleven cases finds little evidence that military integration played a substantial causal role in preventing the return to civil war and little support for the likely causal mechanisms. Military integration does not usually send a costly signal of the parties’ commitment to peace, provide communal security, employ many possible spoilers, or act as a powerful symbol of a unified nation. We conclude that it is both unwise and unethical for the international community to press military integration on reluctant local forces.
NoteBased in part on a larger collective project: Roy Licklider (Ed.). (2014). New Armies from Old: Merging Competing Military Forces after Civil Wars. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press; see http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/new-armies-old.
GenreArticle, Non-refereed, Version of Record (VoR), Journal Article
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3WH2S4D
LanguageEnglish
Additional Detail(s)
Type: Journal
Name: International Security
Detail: 93-138
CollectionLicklider, Roy
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsCopyright for scholarly resources published in RUcore is retained by the copyright holder. By virtue of its appearance in this open access medium, you are free to use this resource, with proper attribution, in educational and other non-commercial settings. Other uses, such as reproduction or republication, may require the permission of the copyright holder.