Ethno-politics has become a major force in the post-Cold War era. The fundamental challenge to military establishments in deeply plural societies is the formation of institutional unity from diverse ethnic groups. This edited volume examines seven case studies of countries that have attempted, with varying degrees of success, to develop, or to begin to develop, within their military establishments a single "quasi-ethnic" military identity to effect unity within their ranks and attenuate the deep and often violent ethnic divisions that otherwise would pertain. The volume compares contrasting outcomes in two African regions: West Africa with the contrasting cases of Guinea and Nigeria and East Africa with the cases of Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. It also examines the very different cases of Algeria and Suriname. In most of these cases, the emergence of a single, unified, quasi-ethnic identity is in its earliest stages, although rapid global change points to the likelihood that this pattern will prevail.

In The Military and Society in the Former Eastern Bloc , an assortment of regional specialists in military relations are gathered together to comment on the current state of the military in a number of Eastern bloc states, including: Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Mongolia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria. Each chapter provides more than a simple status-report on military readiness in these states, focusing instead on the relationship between the military, politics, and society in these new and burgeoning democracies. Further, contributors evaluate and predict the future of the military in political developments in these regions.